Review: 'The Little Traitor'
Plot: In 1947 Palestine, a "militant" Jewish 12-year-old and his "enemy" - a British soldier - form a lasting friendship.
Bottom line: Gentle but suspenseful kid's-eye view of a tumultuous time and an unlikely bond.
Cast: Alfred Molina, Ido Port, Rami Hoebreger, Gilya Stern
Length: 1:29
Unlikely pals in 'The Little Traitor'
Photo credit: Regent Releasing | From left, Alfred Molina as Officer Dunlop and Ido Port as Proffy in "The Little Traitor"
Despite the seeming simplicity of its story and characterizations, writer-director Lynn Roth performs a juggling act with "The Little Traitor" - about a young boy living in pre-Israel Palestine with grandiose dreams of overthrowing his British occupiers, and naive ideas about being a Zionist. It's a coming- of-age story, in a sense, so the particulars of war and its aftermath have to take a second seat to the problems of being an adolescent under duress, without being trivialized.
Roth pulls it all off admirably in her tale of Proffy (Ido Port), the son of settlers who have clandestine meetings about forming a new nation, and are suddenly accused of being traitors after Proffy is befriended by a lonely British sergeant (Alfred Molina). The cost of zealotry, and its collateral damage, aren't Roth's chief concerns - humanity is - but she manages to confect a film of both sweetness and subtle meaning.
