State of siege

In an unnamed, repressive South American country, an American CIA agent is held hostage by a left-wing guerrilla group demanding the release of 150 political prisoners. Rapid-fire crosscutting builds suspense as the offical's life hangs in the balance. Costa-Gavras' political thriller, filmed in Allende's Chile, examines the terrorist act in terms of national policy and U.S. intervention in Latin America. The plot is a thinly veiled re-enactment of the actual 1970 kidnap and murder in Uruguay of Dan A. Mitrione, an official with the United States Agency for International Development. The director's indictment of America's clandestine collusion with Latin American dictatorships caused the film to be withdrawn from the American Film Institute Theater in 1973. The film was also criticized by the Left who condemned Costa-Gavras' sympathetic portrayal of the CIA in the guise of Yves Montand. (Does not circulate).