State of siege = Etat de siege

In an unnamed South American state, three men are taken hostage by political terrorists. One of the men is an American (Yves Montand) who works for the US Agency for International Development. The kidnappers insist that the military government release 150 political prisoners before they themselves release their hostages. With documentary precision, influenced by Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers”, Greek director Costas Gavras presents an intricate and suspenseful study of the relationship between hostage and kidnapper as well as detailing the social, economic and military conditions that lead people to terrorism. The Agency for International Development represents the CIA and as “State of Siege” makes clear, the stability of fascist and/or military governments in Latin America was dependent on covert funding, training and support by United States government. In the debate between Montand and his cloaked kidnappers the moral quagmire of the Cold War is made clear and the American is forced to take responsibility for his own involvement in policies that led to torture and murder. Gavras, himself a political exile from the military junta of Greece, examined the excesses and failures of Cold War politics in an astonishing tryptich of early 1970s films: “Z”, “The Confession” and “State of Siege”, films which combined moral and political integrity with a deft execution of thriller generic conventions. The musical score is by Mikos Theodorakis. The political events essayed in this film are based on the modern histories of Uruguay, Chile and Brazil. In French with English subtitles.