The Traitor

Vähän kuin yhdistetty elämäkerta / rikosjuttu / kolminkertainen oikeudenkäyntidraama, joka viskaa sinut syvään veteen – ja sitten mentiin. Ennen kuin pääset kärryille, alkavat mafiaperheet jo murhata toisiaan (saattaa olla, ettet ehdi kyytiin koko aikana – itselläni ei ollut mitään käsitystä siitä, kuka ketäkin murhaa... eikä se edes haitannut. Hahmot ovat joka tapauksessa kuolleet... ). Vauhti on kovaa, sillä tästä moniaiheisesta, 150 minuuttiin tiivistetystä pläjäyksestä olisi voinut tehdä kokonaisen sarjan. Jos ennen tätä olet istunut katsomassa jonkin kuluneen "taide"leffan festivaaliesityksen, on tämä todellista mannaa, minkä vuoksi en voi taata, että olisin viihtynyt näin hyvin, jollei tämä olisi ollut päivän neljäs elokuva. [Rakkautta & Anarkiaa 2020] (22.09.2020)

Slight disappointment. The Italian mafia and courtrooms are among my favourite subjects, but neither line appealed to me here. The film is too long for my taste, with too many characters to form any kind of relationship with, the verbal shootouts in court have no charge and it doesn't really build up, it stagnates rather. It's watchable, a few sequences weren't bad, but considering the subject I expected something much more vigorous and powerful. (06.02.2020)

The Traitor is a nice reconstruction of a great event in Italian history. Its mafia entanglements are a rewarding topic for the audience - lovers of dramas and thrillers will appreciate watching the actors’ various impersonations of mafia bosses. Therefore, it is a pity that it is almost as if the first third of a three-hour film was missing, because we do not know much about the supporting characters who keep appearing. Most of the mobsters whom the main character rats out and whom we later see in court (or elsewhere) are like disposable dummies and neither their personal relationship with Buscetta, nor what they’ve been through together is known to us. Apart from this drawback, which some viewers might not mind, it is a high-quality production with the excellent Pierfrancesco Favino. But personally, I am more drawn toward the fictitious, but more cinematic, atmospheric and dramatic Suburra. [Cannes] (24.05.2019)

The Traitor convincingly shows why certain substances disappear from cinema and are subsequently used by television companies. Marco Bellocchio tries, but capturing the competition of mafia clans and the war of Cosa Nostra against the state apparatus over a period of almost two decades in a single film is not satisfactorily possible. Most highly interesting characters only briefly appear in the film and important events are abbreviated. The main character is observed by the screenwriter with evident empathy, regardless of the fact that his cooperation with justice was purposeful. His opponents are depicted as exemplary monsters (which undoubtedly they were), but the film only marginally deals with Buscetta's colorful register and blood under the nails, and actually only at the very end. Watching it once is fine, but it doesn't make sense to return to the film. Overall impression: 60%. (17.12.2020)

At first, there was slight confusion about who the character is, what the character is all about, and what side he is on, which the audience could sort of figure out after the first half-hour. Then they could sit back and enjoy a reconstruction of the historic trial of Sicilian mafia bosses, whose hot-headedness seems completely authentic and is highly entertaining for the audience. Here, the ruthlessness of the mafia bosses ordering bloody hits in the streets contrasts wonderfully with their subsequently downright childish and absurd squabbling in court. It is a bit of a shame that they did not make more use of the relationship between Buscetta and Falcone (a character that deserves more screen-time in the movie, however, there are other more specific works exploring him), however, in the context of showing the many years of the process as much as possible, faithfully, in its entirety and in context, it probably could not have been done any better than this. I am satisfied, albeit with minor reservations. [KVIFF 2019] (29.06.2019)