English Movie The Little Traitor 2009
Cast And Crew
Staring Lior Sasson, Boris Reinis, Gilya Stern (ii), Rami Heuberger, Ido Port, Alfred Molina
Director: Lynn Roth
Producers: Lynn Roth, Eitan Evan, William Jarblum, Marilyn Hall
Screenwriter: Amos Oz, Lynn Roth
Genre: Drama, Politics, Religion, War
Written By: Lynn Roth from Amos Oz's novel "Panther in the Basement
Release Date: October 16, 2009
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributor: Westchester Films Inc.
The Little Traitor" - Synopsis
Proffy Liebowitz is a militant yet sensitive boy who wants nothing more than for the occupying British to leave his land. He and his two friends spend most of their time plotting ways to terrorize and/or blow up the British until one evening, while he's out after curfew, Proffy is seized by Sergeant Dunlop. Instead of arresting him, the British officer deposits Proffy back home, and soon the foes become friends. Proffy, who is estranged from his own father, begins to see Dunlop as a parental figure. Dunlop, lonely and poetic, loves the spirited boy and they find lots to talk about in their meetings, which Proffy must keep a secret. When Proffy's friends follow him one day and see that he has been visiting the detested enemy, they report him to the town officials and Proffy is brought to "trial" for being a traitor. He is eventually found innocent but these experiences shape him for life... especially the shock that he could have such genuine affection for the enemy.
Based on the novel “Panther in the Basement” by the world renowned author, Amos Oz, “Little Traitor” takes place in 1947 Palestine, just a few months before Israel becomes a state. Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive twelve year old, has grown up under British occupation and wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get out of his land.
Proffy and his two friends are always plotting ways to terrorize the British until one evening, while he’s out after curfew; Proffy is seized by Sergeant Dunlop (Alfred Molina). Instead of arresting him, Sergeant Dunlop escorts him back home and a friendship begins to develop in the following weeks. Proffy starts to consider Dunlop a father figure, as his own father is cold and remote. Dunlop, lonely and poetic, loves the spirited boy and reads the Book of Samuel, Dunlap’s favorite part of the Bible. Proffy helps Dunlap with his Hebrew while Dunlap teaches Proffy difficult English words and provides the fatherly guidance missing in Proffy’s life.
As neighborhood tensions escalate between the British and the underground Jewish rebellion, their relationship becomes increasingly complicated. While Proffy has learned a great deal from his mentor, he is also shunned by his friends for this friendship and thus called a “traitor” by his neighbors and community. The resulting trial and shock that he could have such genuine affection for his “enemy” will change Proffy’s life forever.
REVIEW
When two lonely people meet and establish a friendship, we say "They found each other," an expression often used to denigrate couples but can also mean that the two have been blessed. In "The Little Traitor," based closely on Israeli novelist Amos Oz's short book "The Panther in the Basement," the gifted young actor Ido Port stars as a kid who, together with his two best friends, imagines himself like a panther in the basement, a member of the underground ready to pounce on his country's occupiers and drive them out. The film takes place during one of Israel's fateful years, 1947, when Jews and Arabs lived together in the British mandate of Palestine. While only a little is mentioned about the troubles that both subjugated groups would suffer when the British pulled out, the movie deals partly with the tensions that the Jews felt during the British occupation of Palestine, but more important with the unlikely friendship formed between an twelve-year-old boy and a British sergeant who takes him under his wing.
The film does not talk down to a potential young audience: this is a movie that could be appreciated by people the boy's age and by others who are considerably older. Some of the book's subtleties do not translate into celluloid-for example, novelist Oz favors word play as in his sentence "What connection is there between defect and descent, mole and rat, saboteur and stabber?" No matter: what emerges is a tender tale told from a young lad's point of view, a boy whose education outside the classroom is, as the cliché goes, the more important one.
Avi Leibowitz (Ido Port), known simply as Proffy (for professor), is an twelve-year-old Jerusalem resident who despite his sharp mind does not at first see subtleties in considering the British occupation of his land. He cannot imagine that life will be more difficult after the British leave, nor does he see the occupiers as individuals who may harbor sympathetic feelings toward the Jews and want to return to Britain as much as Proffy wants them out. When Proffy is almost arrested by Sgt. Dunlop (Alfred Molina) for violating a curfew, he forms a cautious friendship with the man-believable enough since Proffy's scholarly father (Rami Hoebreger) seems never to have time for him. Since Proffy and his two pals, Chita and Ben Hur, plan ways to terrorize the British, albeit on a small scale, Chita and Ben Hur are shocked to find Proffy regularly visiting British headquarters. They assume he's passing information to them about their child-like plans-that he's a little traitor. Little do they know that their pal has no secrets to tell but that he is simply bonding with the enemy on strictly social grounds. Dunlop, who wears a crucifix on his neck, is pro-Jewish, interested in parts of the Hebrew bible like the Book of Samuel. Given Proffy's inability to find an audience with his dad of with his mom (Gilya Stern), we can bet that he will have mixed feelings when the British leave Palestine, as they are preparing to do.
Teens and tweens in the audience will relate to the conferences that they three young people have: no doubt many of us have had grandiose plans for influencing events whose meanings may elude even the brightest among ourselves. Adults may well identify with Sgt. Dunlop, with the loneliness that any soldier might feel for loved ones back home, with a lack of understanding about the political situations that have caused them to be stationed in remote areas where they are met with hostility by the local population.
"The Little Traitor" is a solid piece of cinema, with a particularly emotional scene occurring near the conclusion as the U.N. votes to end the British mandate followed by dancing in the streets. A black-and-white archival scene compares the reality in 1947 with the dramatization in the story: more than six seconds should have been shown, as the event was a joyful to the Jews as V-J day in 1945 was for us in the States.
