Relato ficional do assassinato do deputado democrata Grigoris Lambrakis, em 1963. Foi a fonte do filme do Costa-Gavras.
O título do filme faz menção ao popular slogan grego "Ζει", que significava "ele [Lambrakis] vive, e que fez com que a letra Z fosse proibida, juntamente com movimentos de paz, grees, uniões sindicais, cabelos longos em homens, os Beatles e outras bandas contemporâneas, Sófocles (!), Tolstoi, Ésquilo (!), escrever que Sócrates era homossexual, Ionesco, Sartre, Tchekhov, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Mark Twain, Beckett, sociologia, enciclopédias internacionais, imprensa livre e a nova matemárica. ( )

In 1963, a dynamic, progressive young politician was assassinated. No, not Kennedy. Gregory Lambrakis, socialist legislator and critic of the Greek government, was murdered in Salonika, in a government supported conspiracy. Nearly a half-million people followed his coffin to Athens. The letter "Z" ("he lives") began appearing everywhere.

Z was published in 1966. One year later, the American-supported junta had seized power and the book was banned, its author in exile.