The Betrayers brings David Bezmozgis thriller home for Toronto premiere
Toronto filmmaker David Bezmozgis has brought his third feature, The Betrayers, home for a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film premiered on Sept. 12 at the Scotiabank Theatre. It screens in Centrepiece, the festival strand for notable new work from around the world, where it is listed as a 90-minute feature in English.
The story is set in present-day Crimea. It centres on two Soviet-era Jews whose pasts collide: Baruch Kotler, a disgraced Israeli politician on the run, and the man who informed on him to the KGB in the 1980s.
Michael Aronov plays Kotler. Kaelen Ohm plays Leora, Kotler's mistress, in what The Hollywood Reporter notes as Ohm's latest role. Simon McBurney plays Chaim Tankilevitch, with Roxanna Hope Radja also starring.
Bezmozgis adapted the film from his own 2014 novel of the same name. TIFF describes the book as literary prize-winning and the film as a deft political thriller about the limits of love and loyalty.
The production was mostly shot in Bari, Italy. It is a Canada-Ukraine co-production from producers Bill Marks, Volodymyr Yatsenko and Anna Yatsenko.
For Bezmozgis, the premiere is a homecoming with a twist. He previously directed Victoria Day and Natasha and co-wrote the screenplay for Charlotte, but this is his first film as a director at TIFF.
What makes this stand out is how close the source material sits. A writer-director adapting his own novel, filmed far from where it is set, now launching it in the city where he lives and works.
