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A thinly fictionalised account of the 1963 murder of the leftist deputy Grigoris Lambrakis in Thessaloniki by right-wing thugs with police collusion, and the dogged investigation that exposed the conspiracy. Vassilikos maps the real city: the hall where the Deputy speaks at a peace rally, the central street where a three-wheeled truck runs him down, the hospital where he dies, the courthouse where an honest magistrate unpicks the cover-up, and the waterfront under the shadow of the coming junta.

The Deputy

The rally hall (the Deputy's speech)

Part 1

The pacifist Deputy arrives to speak at a rally the authorities have done everything to sabotage, the hall besieged by paid thugs and passive police. Vassilikos builds the atmosphere of menace around the meeting exactly, a democratic act taking place inside a trap the state has already sprung.

Part 1

inferred The Deputy comes to central Thessaloniki to address a peace meeting, held in a hall near the centre while an organised mob and complicit police gather outside; the venue is sited in the real city centre.

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The Journalist

The assassination street

Part 1

In full view of the crowd and the watching police, a battered three-wheeler roars out and knocks the Deputy down, a thug leaning out to strike his skull. A journalist's photographs and the testimony of ordinary bystanders will later make the 'accident' impossible to sustain.

Part 1

explicit As the Deputy crosses a central Thessaloniki street after the meeting, a three-wheeled delivery truck driven by right-wing thugs runs him down and a passenger clubs him; the attack took place on a real street in the city centre.

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