24.08.22
Events
L'Aveu (1970) / Director: Costa-Gavras / Length: 140 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
The film is about Anton Ludvik, alias Gerard, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia. He realizes he is being watched and followed. One day, he is arrested and put into jail by an organisation that declares itself "above the ruling party" and put in solitary confinement for months without being told the reason why. Through brainwashing techniques, including sleep deprivation, being forced to walk back and forth all the time, and drugs, he is slowly pressured into confessing imaginary crimes and treason and to repeat this confession in a public court. Years later, he meets his now demoted tormentor, who tries to downplay his role at that time.
Costa-Gavras (born 1933 in Iraia, Greece) is a renowned Greek-French film director and producer who is known for making films with overt political themes. During the World War II, his father, a tax official in Athens, worked for the left wing resistance movement and became marked as a communist. Later with the defeat of the communists in the civil war, he was jailed. It not only affected the family financially, but closed the door for higher studies for young Gavras. Consequently, he was forced to move to France, where he graduated from Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris. Thereafter, he started working as assistant to various reputed directors and had his directorial debut in mid-1960s with a French thriller film called ‘Compartiment tueurs’. However, his later films began to carry an overt political message, especially ‘Z’, ’État de Siège’, ‘Missing’, and ‘Hamma K’, etc. Today he is a naturalized French citizen and lives in Paris.
This film is screened in partnership with Alliance Française de Pristina, French Embassy in Kosovo and IF Cinema.