Z

I wasn't too impressed with this at first- I was expecting something tense and involved, and it never really becomes that. Violence doesn't happen professionally, as I would expect from a modern political thriller, but thuggishly, and in spurts. The central assassination isn't a sniper with a clever scheme, it's a couple of drunk jackasses in a three wheeled cart they can't even afford.

That's where it gets interesting- it goes from a sort of document of indignation, an illustration of fascists attacking protesters as the police do nothing, to a procedural, as the assassination is investigated. In the course of the investigation, the fascists who'd been attacking at the rally are examined in depth, and they're the very people that socialists are always trying to help: the downtrodden peasantry who can't afford the basic needs of life. The right wing bribes them, and they attack the leftists. It's not surprising, but it's very well done, and a good document of how one gets widespread populist parties founded solely on false consciousness.

Of course, as it develops, the really evil characters are high level political figures. The heroes are mostly apolitical- the prosecutor who does his job studiously and efficiently, the slightly dickish reporter who nonetheless uncovers vital facts, the key witness who is acting largely out of spite etc. The movie doesn't pull a Southparkian false equivalancy by making the leftists as horrid as the right wingers, but it also doesn't really focus on them; as it unrolls, it's a battle of wills between the honest officials who do their job well, and the bastard conspirators who created the situation. As such, it's not a call to revolution, but a call to honesty and goodwill- but one that doesn't excuse the corruption inherent to the system.