The Traitor

Tommaso Buscetta was one of the first Italian Mafia members to turn state’s evidence. His valuable revelations about the Cosa Nostra enabled Judge Falcone and the Italian justice system to understand how the sprawling organisation operated. The film begins on the eve of one of the bloodiest episodes in the organisation’s history. Salvatore Riina, the leader of the Corleonesi, had rival clans massacred, even killing children, ‘so that the seed would be lost’. From Brazil, where he had fled, Buscetta counted the dead, including his two sons. Arrested by the Brazilian police, he was extradited to Italy, where he decided to collaborate with the state. The settling of scores is dealt with in an almost documentary form of a tally of corpses. Anything that could contribute to perpetuating the myth is discarded. Similarly, Marco Bellocchio never makes Buscetta either a hero or a monster. He emphasises his humanity. Not to make us forget his guilt, but to remind us that the Mafia, in Falcone’s words, is a ‘human phenomenon’. Neither eternal nor invincible. After spending his life in hiding (he died under a false identity in 2000 in Florida), Buscetta is still considered as a traitor by some of his fellow citizens. By setting most of the film in courthouses, courtrooms and prison cells, Bellocchio brilliantly dismantles the mythology of the Mafia and its trappings. (Jacques Morice; telerama.fr)