Amid a tense political climate, the opposition leader is killed in an apparent accident. When a prosecutor finds evidence of a cover-up, witnesses start to get targeted... A thinly veiled account of the 1963 assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis and its aftermath, Z captures the outrage about the US-backed military junta that ruled Greece at the time of its release.

Denmark, in the near future. One year after a major bomb attack in Copenhagen, political radicalization has intensified and ethnic tensions are increasing. As next year's parliamentary elections approach, in which nationalist leader Martin Nordahl hopes for a landslide victory, Zakaria becomes involved in a radical organization, where he befriends Ali.

On December 12, 1969, a bomb kills 17 people at the Piazza Fontana national bank in Milan, Italy, marking the beginning of the Years of Lead. Local anarchists are scapegoated for the massacre by police and the media, but a lone prosecutor uncovers a conspiracy of far-right groups, corrupt secret services, and other interests that seek to undermine democracy.

Bastien is twenty years old and has been an activist for five years in the main extreme right party. When the presidential campaign begins, he's invited by his superior to commit even further. Initiated into the art of decking himself out like a politician, he starts to dream of a career, but old demons surge forth...