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The Traitor
Movie

The Traitor

2018 • Unknown

Woke Score
3
out of 10

Plot

1971, Odesa Film Studio. The KGB studio curator orders a re-edit of just finished movie about the events of Ukraine’s 1920s "civil war" of a young director in line with the Party’s view on the historical events. This re-editing work is entrusted to a young female editor, which consequently realizes she must protect the director’s vision and the safe-guard the truth about her country under Soviet occupation.

Overall Series Review

The movie centers on the ideological struggle between Soviet state-sponsored revisionism and the defense of Ukrainian historical truth, which dictates its scoring outside of typical 'woke' tropes. The central conflict is political and national, not a struggle based on identity or race. The narrative's only notable concession to modern sensibilities is the casting of a young female editor as the heroic intellectual and moral agent who saves the creative and political truth from the male-dominated Soviet/KGB apparatus.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The plot focuses entirely on an ideological conflict—the struggle for historical truth against Soviet propaganda—with no reliance on race, intersectional hierarchy, or vilification of 'whiteness.' Character actions are defined by their political and moral alignment to the Soviet regime or Ukrainian truth.

Oikophobia1/10

The film actively defends Ukrainian national and historical truth against the Soviet occupation's attempts to corrupt it, which is an affirmation of home culture and its ancestors' sacrifices against a totalitarian, philosophically antithetical system. This is the opposite of civilizational self-hatred.

Feminism6/10

A young female editor is placed in a position of moral and professional superiority, becoming the sole champion and protector of the older male director's artistic vision and the historical truth. This narrative structure positions the woman as the 'Girl Boss' savior who is more competent and morally steadfast than her male colleagues and superiors (the KGB curator).

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative is focused on a historical and political thriller set in Soviet Ukraine during the 1970s. The plot makes no attempt to center sexual identity, deconstruct the nuclear family, or inject gender ideology; sexuality is a private, non-lecturing element mentioned only in passing as part of the protagonist's personal challenges.

Anti-Theism1/10

The core conflict is political and ideological (historical truth versus The Party's view), not spiritual or religious. The movie neither attacks nor relies on traditional religion, focusing instead on objective historical fact versus totalitarian lies. Morality is framed as objective, rooted in a higher truth about history and nation.