Strasbourg -- From October 28, 2026, arte.tv will stream nine films by Greek-French director Costa-Gavras, plus a five-part documentary series about his career. Most of the films stay online until October 28, 2026.
Costa-Gavras is widely awarded and regarded as a veteran of political cinema. Across thriller, drama and satire, his work keeps returning to power, violence, guilt and injustice.
The documentary series starts with his early years
The series "Ein Jahrhundert mit Costa-Gavras" (A Century with Costa-Gavras) opens with "Der Anfang: Der Ungerechtigkeit die Stirn bieten", a 56-minute French documentary from 2024 by Marie-Pierre Camus. It covers his youth in Greece, shaped by a culture of resistance, and his move to Paris, where he learned filmmaking from major directors. It stops before his 1969 breakthrough with "Z".
This episode streams on arte.tv from October 28, 2026 to October 28, 2026. ARTE airs it as a premiere on Monday, October 28, 2026, at 9:45 p.m. Four more episodes arrive on arte.tv on October 28, 2026: "Alle Filme sind politisch", "Die Wahrheit ist revolutionär", "Auch Demokratien sterben" and "Diese immer aktuelle Vergangenheit".
His 1965 debut opens ARTE's film evening
ARTE shows Costa-Gavras's first feature, an 89-minute crime comedy from 1965, on November 16 at 8:15 p.m. Yves Montand, Catherine Allégret, Jacques Perrin and Simone Signoret star. Six people fall asleep in a night train from Marseille to Paris, and one of them is dead on arrival. Inspector Graziani chases the five witnesses, but the killer stays a step ahead.
The streaming lineup spans five decades of political stories
- 1967 (111 min): French rebels in 1943 free twelve condemned prisoners and count thirteen. Distrust spreads through the group.
- 1969, "Z" (122 min): A political thriller with two Oscars. An investigating judge, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, is told to confirm that the death of an opposition leader was an accident.
- 1970 (132 min): Yves Montand plays Czechoslovakia's deputy foreign minister, who is pressured to confess to crimes he never committed.
- 1972 (114 min): Uruguayan urban guerrillas kidnap a US citizen who turns out to be a military adviser.
- 1978 (99 min): With Yves Montand and Romy Schneider, a man and a grieving mother spend one night together.
- 1983 (99 min): Jill Clayburgh plays a Jewish-American lawyer defending a young Palestinian.
- 1986 (99 min): Johnny Hallyday plays a thief whose son wants to become a carpenter, in a gangster family comedy.
- 2005, "Die Axt" (117 min): A laid-off paper mill manager starts eliminating rival job candidates.
A six-minute short from 1958 stays online longest
Costa-Gavras's 1958 short film is available until October 28, 2026. Two homeless men share a shelter with an actor who had to leave the theater because of a heart condition.