In the early 60's Greece's government was firmly controlled by the right wing. However, populist agitation was growing. The government viewed this as 'communist.' Gregoris Lambrakis was a left-wing member of parliament calling for Greece to disarm and withdraw from NATO. After speaking at a rally in Thessalonika on May 22, 1963, he is run down in the middle of the street. Another deputy from EDA, George Tsaroukhas is hit and sustains a head injury. Five days later Lambrakis dies.

The government is widely suspected to be behind the assassination. Over a half a million people attend the funeral shouting "Lambrakis lives!" (Lambrakis zi!). Thus the letter "Z" becomes a symbol for resistance to the repressive regime.

The government was indeed complicit: it had some of its vigilantes did the murder. It took three years and a dogged prosecutor, but eventually some officials were convicted, but not for premeditated murder. Still later, the military junta reversed this, and rehabilitated the police who were involved.

Gregoris Lambrakis

Born 1912, he was a noted athlete, winning medals at the Balkan games and holding the Greek record for long-jump for many years.

He was involved in resistance to the Nazi occupation during WWII. After the war he became a physician.

Left-wing, his politics were pacifist. Elected to parliament in 1961 from Piraeus he became an outspoken advocate who was unafraid to challenge government disapproval of public protest. Just a month before his assassination he used his parliamentary immunity to spectacularly defy a government ban on a peace march.

In 1966 the author Vassilis Vassilikos produced a novel (also called Z) that was based on these events.

This was turned into a movie by Constanine Costa-Gavras ("Missing"), staring Yves Montand as the unnamed Deputy, Irene Papas as his wife Helene and Jean-Louis Trintignant as the brave examining magistrate (the prosecutor).

Due to the control of Greece by the Junta at that time, the movie had to be shot in Algeria and France and is in French with subtitles. The DVD contains a charmingly unpolished interview with Costa-Gavras and the actors sitting in a very smoky room discussing The Meaning Of It All.

The movie is compelling because it works at three levels: telling a true story (about Greece in 1963), telling a particular fictitious story (about this deputy) and telling an archetypal, universal story - all at the same time. The struggle of progressive forces to try to unseat right-wing power is one that is repeated endlessly and thus one many can identify with.

The movie has no significant special effects and the violence is all personal, one-on-one. As a result it is far more realistic and terrifying than any Rambo cartoon. The director puts you right in the middle of it - as here, moments before the deputy (in the brown suit, with his back to the camera) is attacked.