Traitor

A spy thriller. Samir Horn grew up in Sudan, lived in America and served in special forces. He is an explosives expert. The film finds him in Yemen during an arms sale. There is a raid, he is arrested, and in prison he meets a man. The man belongs to an organisation and wants Samir with him. From there the narrative runs on two lines. On one Samir rises inside the organisation, earns trust and becomes part of the plans. On the other two FBI agents are tracking him; by what they have, the man is a traitor. What the film is interested in is not action but identity: Samir is a religious man trying to hold his faith and his work together. The narrative treats that as a question, not as decoration. There is a second question too: the people inside the organisation are not one type. Some are educated, some are angry, some do not quite know how they got there. Don Cheadle plays Samir. Guy Pearce plays the agent facing him; Neal McDonough and Jeff Daniels are in the cast. The original idea for the story is credited to Steve Martin. Jeffrey Nachmanoff wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes quiet spy films built on character. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the film is built on long conversations and waiting, with few explosions.