“The Traitor is big, bold, confident film-making.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio (Vincere) tackles the stranger-than-fiction tale of Tommaso Buscetta, a Sicilian crime boss who became the late 20th century’s most famous state’s witness against the Mafia in this visceral epic. Fleeing Sicily for Brazil to avoid murder charges, Buscetta—played with superb mastery by the charismatic Pierfrancesco Favino (Romanzo criminale)—gets apprehended by the local authorities and extradited to Italy, prompting him to do the unthinkable, becoming the highest ranked don to “sing” to the authorities. Spanning three decades, The Traitor trains its sights on Rome’s infamous, six-year Maxi Trial, which exposed the inner workings of the Cosa Nostra, resulting in hundreds of arrests, largely thanks to Buscetta’s testimony. Masterfully juggling crime drama, politics, and gripping courtroom intrigue, Bellocchio brings impressive dramatic flourishes to the story, placing it squarely alongside canonical masterworks of the Mafioso genre like Gomorrah and The Godfather. Director Marco Bellocchio (Italy 2020) 135 min.