Costa-Gavras

State of Siege

State of Siege

Costa-Gavras puts the United States’ involvement in Latin American politics under the microscope in this arresting thriller. An urban guerrilla group, outraged at the counterinsurgency and torture training clandestinely organized by the CIA in their country (unnamed in the film), abducts a U.S. official (Yves Montand) to bargain for the release of political prisoners; soon the kidnapping becomes a media sensation, leading to violence. Cowritten by Franco Solinas, the electrifying State of Siege piercingly critiques the American government for supporting foreign dictatorships, while also asking difficult questions about the efficacy of radical violent acts to oppose such regimes.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1972
  • 121 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • French
  • Spine #760

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Costa-Gavras, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between Costa-Gavras and film scholar Peter Cowie
  • NBC News excerpts from 1970 on the kidnapping of Dan A. Mitrione, on which the film is based
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by journalist Mark Danner

    New cover by Adam Maida

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Costa-Gavras, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between Costa-Gavras and film scholar Peter Cowie
  • NBC News excerpts from 1970 on the kidnapping of Dan A. Mitrione, on which the film is based
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by journalist Mark Danner

    New cover by Adam Maida
State of Siege
Cast
Yves Montand
Philip Michael Santore
Renato Salvatori
Captain Lopez
O. E. Hasse
Carlos Ducas
Jacques Weber
Hugo
Jean-Luc Bideau
Este
Maurice Teynac
Minister of Internal Security
Yvette Etiévant
Female senator
Evangeline Peterson
Mrs. Santore
Harald Wolff
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Credits
Director
Costa-Gavras
Written by
Franco Solinas
Original scenario by
Costa-Gavras
Original scenario by
Franco Solinas
Produced by
Jacques Henri Barratier
Produced by
Jacques Perrin
Produced by
Léon Sanz
Music
Mikis Theodorakis
Cinematography
Pierre-William Glenn
Editing
Françoise Bonnot

Current

Costa-Gavras on Political Filmmaking
Costa-Gavras on Political Filmmaking
Having made such urgent, ripped-from-the-headlines, international dramas as Z, The Confession, State of Siege, and Missing, it stands to reason that the Greek director Costa-Gavras is often referred to as a political filmmaker. But in this excerpt fr…
Three Reasons: State of Siege
Three Reasons: State of Siege
Those are our three reasons. What are yours?
State of Siege: Their Torture, and Ours
State of Siege: Their Torture, and Ours

Costa-Gavras’s political drama sheds disturbing light on the violent methods used by governments to maintain order.

By Mark Danner