The Traitor | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Italian | Il traditore |
Directed by | Marco Bellocchio |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | Marco Bellocchio |
Produced by | Beppe Caschetto |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Vladan Radovic |
Edited by | Francesca Calvelli |
Music by | Nicola Piovani |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates | |
Running time | 153 minutes [4] |
Countries |
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Languages |
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Box office | $8.9 million [1] [5] |
The Traitor (Italian : Il traditore) is a 2019 internationally co-produced biographical crime drama film co-written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, about the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the first Sicilian Mafia boss who was treated by some as pentito . Pierfrancesco Favino stars as Buscetta, alongside Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fausto Russo Alesi and Luigi Lo Cascio.
The Traitor premiered in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and was released theatrically in 23 May by 01 Distribution, and on 30 October in France by Ad Vitam Distribution. It received positive reviews from critics and auditory. Although selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, it was not nominated.
![]() | This article needs an improved plot summary.(September 2021) |
In the 1980s, the period of maximum power of the mafia clans in Italy, the Cosa Nostra of Palermo and Corleonesi factions (headed by Totò Riina) competing for the drug market, maintaining a facade of friendship and collaboration. Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino), affiliated with Cosa Nostra and known as the "boss of two worlds", senses the imminent war between families and decides to move to Brazil, where he can follow his business in peace under the name or Roberto Felici. As he predicted, after his departure tensions begin and the first victims of the feud fall, including two of his sons and his brother. But Buscetta is captured and tortured by the Brazilian police. The mafioso understands that he is facing certain death when his extradition to Italy is agreed. Unexpectedly, judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) offers him a way out: to collaborate with the police and the judiciary, enjoying the protection of the state. Buscetta, who for some time no longer recognizes himself in the violent and unscrupulous actions of the Cosa Nostra and linked to an idea of the mafia that protects poor people, decides to accept, also to take revenge for the reprisals and persecutions against him and his family. He thus became the first justice collaborator in Italian history, making possible the institution in 1986 of the Maxi-Trial with 475 defendants in the bunker-court of Palermo, where his testimonies - and those of Totuccio Contorno (Luigi Lo Cascio) - lead to the condemnation and arrest of numerous members of the mafia, put to the test for the first time and in the spotlight of the state and public opinion. Organized crime will respond with the assassination of Judge Falcone in 1992 in the attack known as the "Capaci massacre", where in addition to the magistrate, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three escort agents lost their lives. Buscetta, under protection in the United States, will return to Italy to honor the pact with Falcone and testify in the so-called "trial of the century", which involved Giulio Andreotti, the main exponent of the Christian Democrats and a great protagonist of Italian politics in the second half of the 1900s, and numerous other politicians, thus bringing to light the strong ties between the state and the Mafia.
The Traitor was released theatrically in Italy on 23 May 2019 by 01 Distribution, and in France on 30 October 2019. [7]
Sony Pictures Classics took the film for North and Latin America, Australia and New Zealand; it was released in select theaters in the United States on 31 January 2020, and in Canada on 7 February 2020. [8] It was later released on DVD/Blu-ray and video on demand on 12 May 2020.
The Traitor earned $8.9 million worldwide at the box office.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 105 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "While it doesn't probe particularly far below the surface of its central character, The Traitor tells its fact-based story with enough energy to entertain." [9] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [10]
It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. [11] It was selected as the Italian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but was not nominated. [12] The film received 4 nominations to the 32nd European Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best Actor. [13] It also won seven awards (out of 11 nomination) at the Nastro d'Argento: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Actor (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Best Supporting Actor (Luigi Lo Cascio and Fabrizio Ferracane). [14] It won six awards at the David di Donatello awards, including best film, director and lead actor. [15]
Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.
Tommaso Buscetta was a high ranking Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization.
Salvatore Achille Ettore Lima, often referred to as Salvo Lima, was an Italian politician from Sicily who was associated with, and murdered by, the Sicilian Mafia. According to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, Lima's father, Vincenzo Lima, was a member of the Mafia but is not known whether Lima himself was a made member of Cosa Nostra. In the final report of the first Antimafia Commission (1963–1976), Lima was described as one of the pillars of Mafia power in Palermo.
Stefano Bontade, born Stefano Bontate, was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the Principe di Villagrazia − the area of Palermo he controlled − and Il Falco. He had links with several powerful politicians in Sicily, and with prime minister Giulio Andreotti. In 1981 he was killed by the rival faction within Cosa Nostra, the Corleonesi. His death sparked a brutal Mafia War that left several hundred mafiosi dead.
Salvatore Inzerillo was an Italian member of the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Totuccio. He rose to be a powerful boss of Palermo's Passo di Rigano family. A prolific heroin trafficker, he was killed in May 1981 by a firing squad of the Corleonesi family led by Totò Riina during the Second Mafia War who opposed the established Palermo Mafia families of which Inzerillo was one of the main proponents.
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 to 30 January 1992, and was held in a bunker-style courthouse specially constructed for this purpose inside the walls of the Ucciardone prison.
Michele Greco was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and a convicted murderer. Greco died in prison while serving multiple life sentences. His nickname was Il Papa due to his ability to mediate between different Mafia families. Greco was the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
Rosario Riccobono was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of Partanna Mondello, a suburb of Palermo, his native city. In 1974 he became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission. During the 1970s Riccobono was one of the most influential members of the Commission, and the Cosa Nostra's king of the drug trafficking.
Francesco Marino Mannoia is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who became a pentito in 1989. His nickname was Mozzarella. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against the Mafia. Antimafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was first to interrogate him, recalled Marino Mannoia as an intelligent and reliable witness.
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members who decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It is composed of representatives of a mandamento who are called capo mandamento or rappresentante. The Commission is not a central government of the Mafia, but a representative mechanism for consultation of independent Mafia families who decide by consensus. Its primary role is to keep the use of violence among families within limits tolerable to the public and political authorities.
Ignazio Salvo and his cousin Nino Salvo were two wealthy businessmen from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani. They had strong political connections with the Christian Democracy party, in particular with the former mayor of Palermo, Salvo Lima, and Giulio Andreotti. At the Maxi Trial against the Sicilian Mafia in the mid-1980s, they were convicted of association with Mafia members.
The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella.
Antonino Calderone was a Sicilian Mafioso who turned state witness (pentito) in 1987 after his arrest in 1986.
The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from 1981 to 1984 and involved thousands of homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza, it involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization. In addition to the violence within the Mafia itself, there was violence against the state, including a campaign of deliberate assassinations of judges, prosecutors, detectives, politicians, activists and other ideological enemies. In turn, the war resulted in a major crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends and relatives to the fighting. In effect, the conflict helped end the secrecy of the Mafia.
Il Capo dei Capi is an Italian biographical crime drama miniseries which debuted on Canale 5 between October and November 2007. It tells the story of Salvatore Riina, alias Totò u Curtu, a mafioso boss from Corleone, Sicily. Riina is played by Palermo-born actor, Claudio Gioè, and the series was directed by Alexis Sweet and Enzo Monteleone. The series is inspired from the eponymous book-inquiry of Giuseppe D'Avanzo and Attilio Bolzoni. It was broadcast in the UK in the spring of 2013 on the Sky Arts channel, retitled Corleone and split into 12 one-hour episodes.
Giovanni Inzerillo, is a construction entrepreneur and son of Salvatore Inzerillo, a notorious Sicilian Mafia boss who was killed in May 1981 on the orders of Mafia boss Salvatore "Totò" Riina during the Second Mafia War.
Salvatore Riina, called Totò, was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva and il capo dei capi.
Excellent Cadavers is a 1999 television film directed by Ricky Tognazzi.
Giovanni Falcone is a 1993 Italian biographical drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Ferrara. It is based on real life events of the prosecuting magistrate Giovanni Falcone who was killed by mafia in 1992.
Settimo Mineo is an Italian member of the Sicilian Mafia Pagliarelli mandamento from Palermo.