Venice Days screening - short review - TRAITORS by Sean Gullette

Set in Morocco, a young woman who is desperately trying to raise money to record a demo for a music producer with her all girl punk rock band, decides to take up a drug dealer’s offer to drive a car full of cocaine. Structurally speaking, the film is made up of an impressive solidity which keeps the film interesting on a narrative level throughout. Morjana Alaoui is a remarkable presence, and her passion for the punk culture as well as the frustration as the place she lives in sets up good elements within the cultural culture which, nevertheless, remains disappointingly understated in favour of what then turns out to be a more conventional crime drama which aims to entertain. The main problem with that, however, is Gullette’s inability to truly create a tense atmosphere to make it work on that level. Furthermore, Traitors shares a lot of the elements of Maria Full of Grace, a film which it resembles and which was much better and more emotionally rewarding both as a thriller and as a drama.