Film
State of Siege
- Director
- Costa-Gavras
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 120 mins
In a repressive South American country, dodgy undercover CIA agent Yves Montand is held hostage by a lefty guerrilla group who demand the release of 150 political prisoners.
Filmed in Chile (under Allende) three years after his ground-breaking Z, Costa-Gavras‘s taut political thriller achieved the unique distinction of upsetting lefties and the Yanks alike. Its focus on the US’s clandestine relationship with Latin American dictatorships led to the film being withdrawn from Washington DC’s American Film Institute Theater in 1973. Radicals were cross because they thought Montand’s CIA agent was too sympathetic a character. It’s back on screen in the States of Danger and Deceit: European Political Thrillers in the 1970s touring season programmed by HOME, Manchester.
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