Z

Z, a French-Algerian political thriller, reconstructs in fictionalized form the 1963 killing of a leftist Greek politician and the investigation that followed under military rule. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays the examining magistrate who slowly uncovers evidence the authorities want buried, while Yves Montand appears as the murdered figure and Irene Papas as his widow. Jacques Perrin, also a producer on the project, portrays a journalist digging into the same case. Director Costa-Gavras built the picture as a thinly veiled attack on the colonels who ruled Greece when it was made, giving the story a grim, unresolved close rather than a triumphant one. Composer Mikis Theodorakis supplied the score. On release the movie became an unexpected worldwide success and is now regarded as one of the defining works of the political-thriller genre. It broke ground at the Academy Awards as the first non-English production nominated for both best picture and best foreign film, taking home the foreign-film prize along with an editing award, and Trintignant's performance and the Cannes jury both earned separate honors.