The Traitor (2019, Marco Bellocchio)

Palermo, the epicentre of the Sicilian mafia and home to numerous crime families. 

From the get-go, we can see Marco Bellocchio's powerful direction. We're introduced to the entire family prior and amidst the opening credits as they gather for the local town feast of Santa Rosalia at Stefano Bontade's villa in Palermo.

The feast is of course a front only to gather the bosses of the old Palermo mafia and the new ambitious Corleone family to divvy up the trade of heroin and attempt to avoid another war.

Here we meet Tommaso Buscetta (known as Don Masino to the family), where one of his sons is lying on the beach, completely off his rocker on heroin. We can see the shame in Buscetta's eyes, not just for his son but in knowing this is partly his doing.

It's a belter of an opening sequence that explains so much in the span of just 8 minutes. We're shown all the major players, with the families weary of one another and we get that perfect sense of doom that foreshadows what is to come.

Shortly after, Buscetta has fled to Brazil with his family fearing a gang war. Seven months later, Stefano Bontade, a major ally of Buscetta is gunned down and in 1982, two of his sons went missing, never to be found. Between 1981 and 1983, at least 400 mafia killings had occurred within Palermo alone. This, was in fact the Second Mafia War (the Mattanza).

With the grave action upon his family, Buscetta became the first 'soldato' to break 'Omertà' (code of silence), spilling all the beans to the infamous judge Giovanni Falcone. Thus shaking the very bedrock of organised crime in Sicily as the first high profile informant (pentito).

Buscetta argued that within the Mafia (the 'Cosa Nostra' as they call it), there was honour; no women, no children, no innocents, no priests, no judges. With Salvatore Riina taking the helm of the Corleone family, this was no longer the case. Anything went, and Buscetta felt betrayed.

Of course, spoiler alert, there are quite a few 'hits' in the film and the camera work and editing is superb. No quick camera moves, no Hollywood shootouts, the camera takes its time. It glides us along the scenes, showing us in an almost documentary style.

Another captivating element of this film is actor Pierfrancesco Favino (Romanzo criminale) as Tommaso Buscetta, giving the performance of his career. With the right tone and great body language, he understands that fine line of semi-sympathy, for we know he's no innocent either.

The film perfectly encapsulates this unbelievable true story by shying away from the glorification of most previous mafia films. Some may say it's drawback is it's astounding numerous points of facts and almost bullet point manner it presents itself (mostly in the court room scenes). This may at times detain it's optimum level of entertainment.

Yes, it's nowhere near as entertaining a film as say The Godfather, Goodfellas or even Gomorah, but it's not intending to be. The film's main intent is to show you the monstrosity of the Casa Nostra, and the atrocities it would stoop to in order to maintain it's power/silence. And for this, it delivers in spades.

Click here for the trailer

Rating: A