TRAITOR is writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff's powerful rumination on post-9/11 foreign affairs wrapped up into a taut contemporary spy thriller. Balancing the film's sometimes conflicted ideological heft is Don Cheadle, who turns in a smartly even-keeled performance as Samir Horn, a Sudanese-born, Chicago-raised former U.S. Army Special Forces operative. The action begins with a jarring prologue set in Sudan in 1978, where the young Samir witnesses the murder of his father by car bombing. Jumping swiftly to present day Yemen, Samir, in a dramatically ironic twist, is revealed as a mercenary selling explosives to Muslim extremists. But what is never completely clear throughout TRAITOR's numerous plot-twists is just where Horn's allegiances truly lie: is he an American spy infiltrating a Jihadist plot or a devout Muslim who has traded his sympathies with the West? When an arms sale runs afoul, Samir is jailed in a Yemeni prison where he befriends Omar (Said Taghmaoui), a ringleader of a terrorist organization that is being watched by the F.B.I. A bold prison break is hatched and the pair begins collaborating on a series of bombings throughout Europe. As Samir becomes embroiled in ever-escalating terror plots, it becomes clear that he is duplicitously playing both sides at growing danger to himself and the lives of innocent people. Cut with a breathless, war reportage-styled pace, TRAITOR is an action-packed, suspense-filled thriller whose seemingly equivocal ideological veneer can be summed up as: "In war, there are no winners."
DVD Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.78
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
Subtitles - Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - Jeffrey Nachmanoff - Director; Don Cheadle - Actor
Featurette - 1. Action! The Stunts and Special Effects of TRAITOR
2. International Espionage: An In-Depth Look at TRAITOR'S Exotic Locations
Distributor Notes: Academy AwardŽ nominee Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) and Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) star in Traitor, a taut international thriller set against a puzzle of covert counter-espionage operations.
When straight-arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton (Pearce) investigates a dangerous international conspiracy responsible for a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn (Cheadle). But a tangle of contradictory evidence emerges, forcing Clayton to question whether his suspect is a disaffected former military operative ? or something far more complicated. Obsessed with discovering the truth, Clayton tracks Horn across the globe as the elusive ex-soldier burrows deeper and deeper into a world of shadows and intrigue.
Traitor is written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (screenwriter of The Day After Tomorrow ). STAR POWER DON CHEADLE (Reign Over Me), GUY PEARCE (Memento), NEAL McDONOUGH (TV'S "Desperate Housewives"), JEFF DANIELS (Dumb & Dumber).
Source: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Director of Photography
J. Michael Muro: Director of Photography, TH ELAST MIMZY (2007)
Executive Producer
Arlene Gibbs: Executive producer
Executive Producer
Ashok Amritraj: Producer
Executive Producer
Kay Liberman: Executive producer
Executive Producer
Steve Martin: American actor/comedian/director/writer
Production Designer
Laurence Bennett: Production Designer, CRASH (2005)
Review 1:
"Don Cheadle reaffirms his excellence in a good, terrorism-themed thriller that also features guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels....It tells a good, snakelike story, slithering in some unpredictable directions."
Source: Los Angeles Times
08/29/2008
Review 2:
"[S]omber, absorbing....[TRAITOR] manages an impressive feat of economy....[With an] unassuming style and tightly focused story..."
Source: New York Times
08/29/2008
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