Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce & Said Taghmaoui
An intelligent thriller involving terrorism that, whilst not offering anything ground breaking or original in its approach, is still far superior to many similar attempts by Hollywood to tackle the subject and is helped by a strong performance by Don Cheadle.
With there having been many films coming out of America, post-9/11, that have tackled different aspects of terrorism and America’s “War on Terror” with them ranging from highly complex (Syriana) to near-straight action films (The Kingdom) though it seems that few have dealt with an Islamic perspective on terrorism. Whilst Traitor is an American film with an American actor in the lead role, the film does attempt to offer a different perspective on the situation.
Samir Horn (Cheadle) is a Sudanese born, American raised Muslim who saw his father killed by a terrorist bomb when he was a child and, having spent time in the US Special Forces, is now captured in Yemen for selling explosives to a terrorist group. After refusing to co-operate with FBI Agent Clayton (Pearce), Horn is imprisoned where he builds a friendship with Omar (Taghmaoui), a member of a terrorist group and is then brought into the group after a prison escape. Using his explosive skills to aid Omar’s group whilst debating the ethics of his actions with his own religious beliefs, the question is whether Horn is who he says he is. Is he a Muslim who has fallen into extremism or could he be an undercover agent? And, if he is an undercover agent, could he still have become sympathetic to the extremist cause?
Whilst some answers regarding Horn’s past and past relationships are provided early, the conflict Horn faces with the morality of his actions remains engaging throughout the film. Having his character be a devout Muslim gives Don Cheadle plenty to work with as an actor. Having a Muslim lead character also means audiences get to see a Muslim perspective on terrorism, America and the cycle of violence that continues between them while also showing a different perspective of Islam than that of extremists. While Traitor does generally follow a fairly standard plotline involving attempts to stop a terrorist plot with the possible help of an inside, it is the addition of having a Muslim lead that makes Traitor more satisfying than many films with similar plots.
Traitor also benefits from some strong performances amongst its cast. Don Cheadle is, of course, the most impressive as the lead character Horn. Portraying his character as a man who doesn’t excuse his actions and dealing with the reality of his situation and the events that comes his way, Cheadle also keeps Horn sympathetic even when can, or do, cause harm. Cheadle remains engaging and believable whether his character is debating interpretations of Islamic scripture with his friend Omar or preparing and planting explosives. There is also Guy Pearce as FBI Agent Clayton, a man trying to piece everything together about the plot to attack America and Horn’s role in it. Additionally Traitor features Said Taghmaoui as Horn’s friend within the extremist group, Omar. Omar is a man who has come to believe his group’s actions are justified by their faith. Horn has sympathy for Omar and their friendship and the attempts Horn makes to reach out to Omar provide extra dimension to the character, further aided by Taghmaoui’s performance portraying Omar as a man of intelligence and calm rather than having him delivering bile-filled messages of hate about Americans.
Overall, whilst the plot and some of its twists and turns are somewhat predictable, the performance of Cheadle and the focus on an Islamic perspective of events means Traitor is actually quite satisfying. It might not offer too much additional insight on its subject matter but what it does offer makes it worth watching.
Rating: 3/5
