Z (1969)
Well, this feels alarmingly timely. My "joke" tweet while watching the film, says that the film is a total exoneration for the government. No collusion! No obstruction!
The film is essentially two halves: the build-up to an attack on a member of the opposition party, and the aftermath investigation by Robert Mueller Christos Sartzetakis that very much finds collusion and obstruction. Based on factual events from Greece in the early 1960s, Z acts as an excellent look into the operations of right-wing quasi-authoritarianism...in that space where it vaguely maintains democratic legitimacy but in reality has left it behind. After all, the context of the attack is that the target is an opposition politician they fear will win at the polls.
This really ties into something I've been contemplating. There is seemingly a belief in martyrdom effects in politics...and certainly those around the target of the attack see revolution as a silver lining to the incident. If you look back at the 60s in our own country, it was a decade marked by political strife and violence. If you can detect a momentary bump in liberal outcomes in the aftermath of JFK's death, once MLK and RFK were taken, it is hard not to see the subsequent decades as an overwhelming win for the right-wing. Something that grated on me watching the film, knowing where it was headed, was their insistence on non-violence. I've become bleak on the efficacy of unilateral non-violence when the other side is actively inciting violence against the best and brightest in your movement.
But even though the film resonates with some very depressing things in modern politics, it is not a depressing film. Costa-Gavras instead opts for a dry and dark comedic tone though most of the proceedings. As a conspiracy it is petty, it is dumb, it is inept...it is a perfect analogy for the Trump Administration. A sure-fire inclusion on my discoveries list for the year and the Bondo Collection.