Costa-Gavras: Encounters with History [Paperback]

Costa-Gavras: Encounters with Historyexplores the life and work of the director intertwined with historical and socio-political events, from the early stages of his career: emigrating to France from Greece in 1955 and first studying at the Sorbonne, then focusing on filmmaking at IDHEC, now La F?mis. He became an internationally respected director, first with his Oscar-award winning filmZ(1969) and continued with a vast array of films, including his most recent work,Adults in the Room(2019). His films portray the complexities of human nature, relationships challenged by historical and contemporary socio-political issues. In this overview of the director's films, the authors shed light on his encounters with history from his youth in war-torn Greece to his later films on immigration, unemployment, global capitalistic greed, and the abuse of political and economic power in Europe.


Costa-Gavras' films have spanned several decades and several continents, to combat unethical laws and injustice, oppression, legal/illegal violence, and torture. Throughout his evolution in the world of cinema for over half a century as director, writer, and producer, Costa-Gavras has told human-interest stories that entertain and inspire, and that help us better understand ourselves and a fragile, fragmented world.

John J. Michalczykis Professor and Director of Film Studies in the Art, Art History, and Film department of Boston College, USA, and author and/or editor of fourteen books, including works on Ingmar Bergman, as well as on French and Italian filmmakers. More recently he has publishedFilming the End of the Holocaust(Bloomsbury 2016),Confront! Resistance in Nazi Germany(2005), andNazi Law: From Nuremberg to Nuremberg(Bloomsbury 2017). Since 1992, he has been a documentary filmmaker, whose works includeThe Cross and the Star: Jews, Christians and the Holocaust;Nazi Medicine: In the Shadow of the Reich