IL TRADITORE/  THE TRAITOR

Italy, 2019, 153 minutes, Colour.

Pierfrancesco Favini, Luigi lo Cascio, Fausto Russo Alesi.

Directed by Marco Bellocchio.

During the 1980s, there was great upheaval in Sicily with an expose of the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, especially as it moved from its traditional financial dealings, drug dealings, to the more destructive trade of heroin.

The centre of this expose was a lifelong member of the Cosa Nostra, Tommaso Buscetti, not a top ranking official but with close connections. He had been arrested and imprisoned several times and had moved to Rio de Janeiro for an easier life. With rivalries amongst the leaders, and a large number of assassinations, including was get Buscetti’s two sons, he decided that he was disillusioned with the way the Mafia was going and would testify to the investigations, led by the prominent judge Falcone.

This film shows initial meetings, the bonds between the Mafia leaders, their socialising, yet the rivalries and a huge succession of vicious assassinations. The film also shows was Buscetti’s life in Brazil.

But the significant part of this long film is the series of discussions between Buscetti and judge Falcone, court sequences, the testimony from Busetti, the large range of Mafia personnel in cages in the court, their defiance, the decision of some of them to cross-examine Buscetti and his contradicting them. Ultimately, many of them received severe sentences.

The film also shows the vengeance of the Mafia with the blowing up of the judge’s car on a freeway and his death. This influence was Buscetti’s return to Italy from Canada, to give further testimony, especially against the capo – who calmly denied all Busceti’s accusations but was found guilty and, at the time of the making of this film, still in prison.

Buscetti died in his sleep in Florida in 2000.

20 years earlier, Ricky Tognazzi made a similar expose film, Falcone, Excellent Cadavers, with Chas Pamentieri as the judge and F. Murray Abraham as Buscetti.

This film is the work of Marco Bellocchio, prominent in direction since 1965 – and the maker of Good Morning, Night, on the abduction and death of Italian politician, Aldo Moro.

1. Story? The Italian Mafia pre-1980? The 1980s? Post-the 1980s?
2. Palermo, city, hotels, meetings, sites for assassinations? The courts? The sequences in Canada and the United States? The musical score?
3. Information about Cosa Nostra, the Mafia, the Corleone families, financial dealings, structures, leaders, soldiers, offering opportunity for work? The introduction of heroine, the change in Mafia dealings?
4. The introduction to Tommaso Buscetti? His role in the Mafia, loyal, from a young age, obeying orders, killings, in prison, drug charges? His sons? His wives? Status? His decision to go to Brazil, his life there? The brutal killing of his sons? The effect?
5. The decision to return to Italy, the meeting with Falcone, his decision to give information, his disillusionment with the Mafia, the cruelty, the heroine dealings? The scenes of interviews and the information about the Mafia and its workings?
6. The status of Judge Falcone, his reputation, interrogations, information, court cases, guilty verdicts? The brutality of the blowing up of his car and assassination? The funeral sequences, the speeches, the effect?
7. The rounding up of the Mafia bosses, imprisonment, the numbers, the wide range, leaders, supporters? In the cages during the trial, their behaviour, interjections, permission to smoke…?
8. Buscetti, the return, with Falcone, his decisions, his clothes, going to court, his testimonies? The Mafiosi wanting to cross-examine him, the permissions, his answers, their attacks, denials?
9. The judgements, the verdicts? The revenge on Falcone, the celebration and callous condemning him by the Mafia?
10. Buscetti, relocating in Canada, his life there, his continued friendship with Cornato, his being in the US, the visit, the decision is to return to Italy, testimony, Sicilian language?
11. The arrest of Rina, the boss, mastermind, detached, in the stand, his denials, contradicting Buscetti? The judgement against him?
12. Buscetti, his life after the trials, in the United States, the finale in Florida, his retirement, age, dying in his sleep?
13. The film is a record of the investigation and the Mafia in the 1980s and the consequences?