A fictionalized account of the early 1970's kidnapping of Daniel Mitrione by the Uruguayan Tupamaro terrorist group, "State of Siege" is almost a mirror image of the director's previous film "Z." Mitrione (here called Phillip Michael Santore and played by Yves Montrand) is ostensibly working for USAID, but in reality - a reality uncovered for the viewer as the Tupamaros hold recorded interrogations - he trains the Uruguayan police and associated hangers-on how to torture suspects electrically, run death squads, and destroy the Tupamoros. Outside of the terrorist safehouse a newspaper reporter witnesses how the US government covers for Santore, the Uruguayan crackdown on dissent, and the aftermath. The repression is carried to rediculous extremes; the police storm the national univercity. As the police enter a courtyard, a PA speaker begins playing a revolutionary anthem. They quicky destroy it, when another speaker then blares out the anthem. That too is destroyed, and then another. Somewhere out of sight another squakbox begins playing the anthem, and the police rush off camera.
I call "Etat de siege" a mirror of "Z" because the picture takes place in flashback, the director is willing to hint where the picture is set at the beginning (the car which plays an important part has a Montevideo license plate), and the director is willing to say who is really backing the repression. Most importantly, however, is that the main character is the exact opposite of the politician in the previous film. Santore is willing to use midaeval means to keep South America an apolitical market for American goods and seller of raw materials for US industry, though he hides behind the banner of anticommunism. The politico in "Z" only wanted to keep Greece a non-nuclear power.
I call "Etat de siege" a mirror of "Z" because the picture takes place in flashback, the director is willing to hint where the picture is set at the beginning (the car which plays an important part has a Montevideo license plate), and the director is willing to say who is really backing the repression. Most importantly, however, is that the main character is the exact opposite of the politician in the previous film. Santore is willing to use midaeval means to keep South America an apolitical market for American goods and seller of raw materials for US industry, though he hides behind the banner of anticommunism. The politico in "Z" only wanted to keep Greece a non-nuclear power.