Nineteenth-century Italy. A six-year-old Jewish child is abducted by Papal soldiers who inform his bourgeois parents that the boy was secretly baptized by a maid. If they want him back, they must convert to Catholicism. In the meantime, the boy will be educated in the Vatican at the feet of Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon). There’s an international outcry, but even as the Church loses political ground with the emergence of an Italian state, the Pope remains adamant: the child has been saved.
Marco Bellocchio — 83 and flourishing in the sixth decade of an illustrious career with such acclaimed dramas as The Traitor, Dormant Beauty and Exterior Night — seizes on this true story to mount a fierce denunciation of anti-Semitism and the excesses of the Catholic Church, as well as to chronicle a pivotal chapter in Italian history. Which is not to say you won’t find it resonates with matters closer to home. Bellocchio’s operatic approach is rich, charged, full of fire.
A moving story of faith, loss and family set against the backdrop of a significant moment in Italian history, Kidnapped brings Edgardo Mortara’s unforgettable story to life.
AWFJ.com
Media Partner
Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi Barbara Ronchi, Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese
Italy/France/Germany
2023
Showcase
In Italian with English subtitles
Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Patrick Carrarin, Maurizio Feverati, Alessio Lazzareschi
Producer
Beppe Caschetto, Simone Gattoni
Screenwriter
Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Edoardo Albinati, Daniela Ceselli
Editor
Francesca Calvelli, Stefano Mariotti
Production Design
Andrea Castorina
Original Music
Fabio Massimo Capogrosso
Director
Marco Bellocchio
Bellocchio was born in Piacenza in 1939. In 1959 he abandoned philosophy studies at the Catholic University of Milan and enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. His debut feature film, I pugni in tasca (Fists in the Pocket), won an award at Locarno in 1965 and garnered him international recognition. In 2011 he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival. His work has been the subject of dozens of retrospectives around the world, including at MoMA (New York) in 2014 to commemorate his then 50 years of filmmaking.
Filmography: Fists in the Pocket (1965); Good Morning, Night (2003); Vincere (2009); Blood of My Blood (2015); The Traitor (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Calle Málaga
Seventy-nine-year-old María Ángeles lives independently in Tangier's Spanish quarter. When her daughter pressures her into selling her apartment, she refuses to give in, finding in her old age a new resilience and an unexpected romantic connection.
In the Palm of Your Hand
Charming, (over-)confident clairvoyant Professor Karin hits the jackpot when he hears about a beautiful widow whose millionaire husband has just died. But you don't need to be psychic to see that blackmailing a killer may not be his best idea...
The Night Falls
An arrogant, womanizing sports star eventually gets his comeuppance in this jet-black crime drama from director Roberto Gavaldón.
The Blue Trail
77-year-old Tereza makes a break for the Brazilian jungle in this trippy septuagenarian fantasy, the latest from Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro is a quirky picaresque, lushly photographed and filled with mordant humour.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.