'THE TRAITOR' Dir. Marco Bellocchio

An Italian/Brazilian/French co-production, 'The Traitor', a BAFTA contender this year, is a true crime drama based on the story of how Tommaso Buscetta, a prominent member of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, decided to become a ‘pentito’ (informant) after his sons Benedetto and Antonio were assassinated. "Death is always with us" says Buscetta, whose revelations exposed the structure of the organisation, revealing its MO and amorality, which led to the famous ‘Maxi Trials’ of 1986/87, where 338 Cosa Nostra members were convicted.

by Corina J Poore

Pierfrancesco Favino as Tommaso Buscetta

In 2019, ‘The Traitor’ was the Italian entry at the 92nd Academy Awards and has been reaping many awards at the film festivals, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter and Best Actor (for the mesmerizing performance of Pierfrancesco Favino as Don Massino, or Tommaso Buscetta).

In the 1980s, the Sicilian Mafia is moving heavily into trafficking heroin, leaving the more traditional trades of cigarettes, spirits and other products behind. A bloody mafia war ensues as the families vie for supremacy due to the increased returns. This escalation leads Tommaso Buscetta, one of the Mafia bosses, to decide to ‘retire’ to Rio de Janeiro with his Brazilian wife Maria Cristina de Almeida Guimarães and their young children, leaving his older sons from an earlier marriage, Benedetto and Antonio, behind in Sicily, having secured a promise from his close friend 'Pippo' Calò, who will see that they are protected.

However, despite having a massive reunion with all the families to agree on arrangements, the old mafia Code of Honour is broken, as the Sicilian Corleonesi begin to assassinate members of rival families, even women and young children. Family members had been, traditionally, considered off limits, even to these brutal players. This radically changed the playing field, especially when ‘Pippo’ Calò, Buscetta’s life-long childhood Mafia colleague & friend, who had promised Buscetta he would care for his sons, decides to join the ruthless Corleonesi clan and become a vicious killer. It gave a new gravitas to the mafia blessing: “May you die in your bed.”

Pierfrancesco Favino as Tommaso Buscetta in Rio de Janeiro

In Brazil, Buscetta nevertheless, sets up a drug trafficking network but is arrested by the Brazilian Military government and shortly after is extradited to Palermo where he begins a long sentence.

As a result of the escalation of murders, Judge Gaetano Costa moves against the Mafia and because no one else dares, personally signs the indictments to arrest no less than 55 traffickers. Every Mafia investigating judge for decades had been assassinated and sure enough, a leak ensures that Costa is himself murdered in 1980, leaving Judge Giovanni Falcone (played by Fausto Russo Alesi) to take over what was to become the biggest anti-mafia operation. Falcone does not flinch from the challenge and is given bodyguards.

Thanks in part to the inside information that was finally submitted by the major ‘pentito’ (informant) Tommaso Buscetta and his colleague Salvatore ‘Totuccio’ Contorno (played by Luigi Lo Cascio) Judge Falcone chooses to use new methods, following the ‘money trail’. Utilizing skills learnt from studying bankruptcies, he meticulously goes through the paperwork and bank statements, building up a body of solid evidence that is to finally break the back of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. However, it will also cost Falcone his life and that of his wife, but the vital work he had started was to continue after his death and was eventually as successful as could be expected.

Tommaso Buscetta remains the most famous Pentito. He becomes the first insider to properly describe how the Sicilian Mafia Commission ‘CUPOLA’ or ‘leadership’ functions, led largely by Salvatore ‘Totò Riini and the Mafia’s prime cashier and money launderer, Giuseppe ‘Pippo’ Calò. Buscetta clarifies that the mafia is not a collection of separate gangs, as commonly believed, but a single organization, that implies that the top tier is complicit in all the crimes. This becomes known as the Buscetta theorem.

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Luigi Lo Cascio as 'Tortuccio' Contorno

Biographical crimes stories are notoriously hard to film in a convincing manner but Marco Bellocchio succeeds by focussing on personal details and traits to make his characters totally believable, maintaining the tension with strategically placed flashbacks and subtle editing. The court scenes at the 1986-87 Maxi Trial, the largest ever carried out in history, could have been prosaic, but they are transformed with carefully-edited flashbacks, as well as the focus on the raucous goings-on in the court room. Watching the poor judge trying to keep order in the chaos, ends up being hilarious at times, revealing and very entertaining, despite the shock of defendants sewing up their mouths or refusing to participate. He is obliged to cry out: -

“We need a resident psychiatrist!”

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Defendant with sewn up mouth at the Maxi Trials of 1986-87

Tommaso Buscetta is shown as a man riddled with guilt at having failed to protect his sons. This plays a part in his decision to become a turncoat and reveal the total amorality and ruthless modus operandi of the Cosa Nostra. He reveals just how far the tentacles of the organization have reached to survive, including the involvement of a number of prominent politicians and celebrities. The network was very widely cast with strong elements that even reached Rome.

In what is probably a career-best performance, Pierfrancesco Favino is mesmerizing in the role of the tormented Tommaso. He depicts the brooding, intelligent Buscetta, who within his own code, considers himself a moral being. Buscetta is clearly no angel, having been an accountant and hitman for the mafia in his time, so it is interesting how Favino inhabits this character with total conviction, paying attention to body language and gestures. Judge Falcone and Buscetta, while not becoming friends, clearly develop a deep respect for each other and Buscetta is clearly affected by his assassination in 1992 and decides to continue with his revelations leading to the conviction of Totò Riini among others.

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Trials with Buscetta in bullet-proof box

This film has been criticized for not focussing enough on the damage done by the Mafia to the people of Sicily. However, it is very far from any kind of glamorisation of the organisation or the individuals it portrays. Nevertheless, it brings out the man in Tommaso Buscetta and points out the complications of bringing these mobsters to justice. It also begs the question, who, within such a twisted ‘ethos’, is truly ‘The Traitor’.

True to form and his desire, Tommaso died in his bed in the year 2000. It is a gripping thriller that keeps its audience enthralled, thanks largely to the charismatic presence of the lead, Pierfrancesco Favino.