Z, and it couldn't be, because there is no justice to emerge at the end and no scoundrels to unmask." The director, he wrote, "has made a point of insisting that the movie is anti-Stalinist, not anti-Communist." London remained a communist at the time the film was made. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker that the film is a "thoughtful, intelligent demonstration of how strong, idealistic men of character are turned into pawns of history". Although the film is "subdued, Costa-Gavras's work has tremendous zing, but it's not until the movie is almost over that it gains resonance." Ronald Bergan and Robyn Karney in the Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide (1988) wrote: "the screenplay's static and wordy nature is not sufficiently tempered by the direction or the playing. However, some of the interrogation scenes which lead to the false confession of the title cannot fail to have an impact." The film was nominated for the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards as Best Foreign Language Film. References External links The Confession: Enthralling Absurdity an essay by Dina Iordanova at the Criterion Collection 1970 films 1970 drama films Films directed by Costa Gavras Italian drama films Films about capital punishment Films about miscarriage of justice Drama films based on actual events Films based on non-fiction books Films set in Prague French drama films Films critical of communism Films produced by Robert Dorfmann Films scored by Giovanni Fusco Films set in Czechoslovakia Films set in 1951 Films set in 1968 1970s French-language films 1970s Italian films 1970s French films