About the Film
Early 1980s. Various godfathers of the Sicilian mafia are at war. Totò Riina, the ruthless boss of the “clan of Corleonesi,” advocates the killing of women, children and innocent people. It is the new, merciless mafia; the one that made money through international networks of drug trade and managed to infiltrate all levels of political power thanks to the help of corrupted politicians. Fearing for his life, Tommaso Buscetta, a mafioso in disagreement with Riina, flees to Brazil. But before long, the Brazilian police arrest him and send him back to Italy. Buscetta does the unthinkable: making a deal with Judge Giovanni Falcone, he agrees to testify against Cosa Nostra. Thanks to his declarations, 360 of the 474 defendants accused of mafia crimes—both the present ones and those tried in absentia—were convicted in the so-called “maxi trial” that lasted two years.
At almost 80, Marco Bellocchio, one of the great masters of Italian cinema, goes on with his quest. His stories of revolt and transgression were trailblazers for student movements in the late 1960s; lately, with films like Buongiorno, Notte (2003)—on the emotions of the members of Brigate Rosse who killed Aldo Moro, and of Moro himself facing his imminent execution—or Vincere (2009)—on his first wife’s desperate love for Mussolini—Bellocchio builds intriguing worlds in which private ghosts intercept the shadow of collective ghosts.
With The Traitor, even if the film is very precise and detailed about the events, what matters the most is to understand Tommaso Buscetta: Is he a traitor? A hero? Or, simply a man that wants to take revenge on the Mafia, who is “the traitor” for him, who killed all the members of his family, children included? The Traitor doesn’t pretend to go inside his psyche, but Favino’s arresting performance builds a gripping character guided by his principles, who possibly turned on the Cosa Nostra not because of a moral awakening, but because he disapproved of the organization’s changing tactics.
Teresa Cavina
