Betrayal

Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic era, Betrayal examines the corrosive power of conflicting loyalties within a single Prussian household. The narrative follows a son whose rigid adherence to Prussian duty is shattered when he discovers his father has secretly aligned himself with the French occupiers for political and personal survival. However, the film refuses to offer a simple heroic alternative; the son finds himself equally repulsed by the local 'patriots' whose desire for liberation has devolved into a mindless, bloodthirsty quest for vengeance. It is a bleak study of a man trapped between a traitorous patriarch and a mob that has lost its humanity in the name of the state.