The Traitor

Il traditore

60th TIFF: Greek Premiere

In the early 1980s, an all out war rages between Sicilian mafia bosses. Tommaso Buscetta, a made man, flees to hide out in Brazil. Back home in Italy, scores are being settled, and Buscetta’s allies are killed off one after another. Arrested and then extradited by the Brazilian police, Buscetta is driven to a decision that will change the course of modern Italian history. He arranges a meeting with Judge Giovanni Falcone and betrays his pledge to the Cosa Nostra. He has become a traitor…

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Marco Bellocchio
Script: Marco Bellocchio, Ludovica Rampoldi, Valia Santella, Francesco Piccolo
Cinematography: Vladan Radović
Editing: Francesca Calvelli
Music: Nicola Piovani
Actors: Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Nicola Calì, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fausto Russo Alesi
Production: IBC Movie, Kavac Film with Rai Cinema, Ad Vitam Production, Match Factory Production, Gullane Entretenimento
Producers: Beppe Caschetto, Viola Fügen, Simone Gattoni, Caio Gullane, Fabiano Gullane, Alexandra Henochsberg, Michael Weber
Co-producers: Michel Merkt, Olivier Père
Art Direction: Andrea Castorin
Costumes: Daria Calvelli
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: Italy, France, Brazil, Germany
Production Year: 2019
Duration: 152΄
Distribution in Greece: Seven Films, sevenfilms@sevenfilms.gr
Contact: The Match Factory, info@matchfactory.de
Awards/Distinctions: Best Director, Best Original Score – Golden Globes, Italy 2019, Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing, Best Score – Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 2019

Marco Bellocchio

Marco Bellocchio is one of the most consistent and most adventurous of today’s Italian directors – an achievement all the more remarkable given that he made his feature debut almost fifty years ago. After making a few shorts, Bellocchio announced himself with his ferocious first feature, the acclaimed Fists in the Pocket (1965). For the next several years, films such as China Is Near (1967) and Nel nome del padre (1971) found Bellocchio examining the turbulent world of leftist politics and revolutionary dreams with an eye both sympathetic and jaundiced. During the 1980s and 1990s, under the spell of unorthodox – and, to some, controversial – psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, Bellocchio’s emphasis turned to examining the interweaving of family dynamics and sexual desire as they produce and undermine personal identities. More recently, Bellocchio has turned to more straightforward narratives in a number of films that examine Italy's recent past and its present, from The Nanny (1999) to one of his most recent works, Dormant Beauty (2012). What has remained constant is Bellocchio’s searching critique of the institutions that control individuals and organize the flow of power: the army, political parties, schools, the state and its laws, the Church, and the family.

Filmography

1965 Fists in the Pocket
1971 In the Name of the Father
1976 Victory March
1982 The Eyes, The Mouth
1986 Devil in the Flesh
1991 The Conviction
1994 The Butterfly's Dream
1999 The Nanny
2003 Good Morning, Night
2009 Vincere
2015 Blood of My Blood
2019 The Traitor
2021 Marx Can Wait
2023 Kidnapped