The Traitor

Italian maestro Marco Bellocchio’s bravura gangster odyssey dramatises the extraordinary real life story of the first major Mafia boss to turn state’s informant.

This riveting drama recounts episodes from the extraordinary life of Sicilian Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta. Caught up in an internecine gang war, he is forced back from exile in Brazil to become the Cosa Nostra's first capo to turn informant in order to protect his family. Ordinarily, this would make for an explosive, action-packed gangster epic. But in the hands of master director Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket, Vincere), it becomes so much more. In fact, The Traitor is nothing less than an epic retelling of late 20th-century Italian history. Directed with extraordinary authority, verve and skill, it is one of Bellocchio’s greatest films and invites comparison with Visconti’s The Leopard and Rosi’s Salvatore Giuliano.