My guest Sotiris Tsernoglu joins the show from Lesbos, Greece to discuss the incendiary political thriller Z by the Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras.

Z shocked the world on its release in 1969, striking a huge cultural chord worldwide in an era of war, protests and political assassinations (it was immediately banned in Greece). Set in an unnamed French-speaking country and filmed in Algiers to avoid state interference, Z is a thinly-fictionalized but clinically detailed account of the 1963 murder of Grigoris Lambrakis (Yves Montand), a popular democratic politician set up by the country’s military establishment to be murdered by right-wing extremists, and the dogged, incorruptible magistrate (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who connects the dots of the incident and attempts to bring the guilty to justice, leading to one of the greatest endings in cinema.

We discuss the real life story of the assassination of Lambrakis, the bravery of Costa-Gavras to fuse politics and entertainment to expose the crimes of the Greek military regime to a worldwide audience, the attempts to suppress the film, and how the shocking story told in Z still resonates today, in Greece and elsewhere.

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast receive at least two additional exclusive episodes a month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Bryan Quinby, Will Sloan, and Jacob Bacharach. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Sotiris Tsernoglu on Twitter.

Trailer for Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)