"Directing this film has been an act of survival," Martin Donovan says, sitting in a Manhattan office on a warm June afternoon. "Directing a film was something I always wanted to do, something that seemed an inevitability in my development as an actor.

Collaborator, an assured directorial debut for actor Martin Donovan (who also wrote the script) is smart, funny and tense, featuring a riveting performance by David Morse.

Now on VOD: the debut feature from the whip-smart Martin Donovan (Trust, Weeds, Saved!). Starring the elusive David Morse, Olivia Williams, and Donovan himself, Collaborator is a well-acted, intimate tragicomedy. Write what you know, right?

Collaborator is not easily pegged in terms of genre or style. The producers and I have grown comfortable calling it a "hostage tragi-comedy." But at its core, seeping through the plot points, is a telling of the American experience from my point of view as a late boomer.