Vancouver Greek Film Festival kicks off with Z, a political thriller that still resonates, June 6

At the Cinematheque, Costa-Gavras's fast-paced masterpiece warns of the precarity of truth amid the rise of right-wing zealots

The Cinematheque presents the Vancouver Greek Film Festival from June 6 to 27. It screen Z on June 6 at 7 pm

THOUGH IT WILL go on this month to feature films by contemporary maverick Yorgos Lanthimos, the third annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival opens by pulling a breathless political thriller out of the vaults.

Legendary Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras’s 1969 masterpiece Z takes its title from a Greek protest slogan meaning “he lives”—referring to assassinated democratic politician Grigoris Lambrakis, who was killed by right-wing zealots in 1963. Loosely inspired by that historic event, Z is enjoyable both as breakneck, grittily lensed thriller and as a darkly biting political critique on the rise of right-wing fascism amid corruption and willful ignorance—issues that resonates eerily today.

In the film, Yves Montand plays the leftist political deputy based loosely on Lambrakis. His death during a speech becomes embroiled in Kafkaesque chaos, a magistrate and an idealistic journalist attempting to sift through evidence to find the truth, while military officers insist that the murder was an accident.

With its frantic edits, a few cool flashback sequences, and intense vérité moments combining with an eclectic score, Z was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as for Best Picture—and makes an energized launch for this fest curated by Harry Killas.

In its own era, Z spoke to a decade that had seen the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. Today it stands as a chilling reminder of the precarity of truth in the face of authoritarian regimes—and what we now know as "alternative facts".

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is cofounder and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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