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
The Nutcracker at Wethersfield
Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
North of Ourselves
In the depths of winter, two adventurers set out to cross Quebec from one end to the other on bike and skis, exploring its staggering geography and meeting its inhabitants (human and otherwise) along the way.
Dean Thiessen Plays Vince Guaraldi + Charlie Brown
In 1965 jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi created the perfect soundtrack to Charles Schultz's beloved Peanuts. Dean Thiessen's 5-tet pays tributes to Guaraldi's catchy tunes, followed by a screening of the first Charlie Brown feature film.
Pictures of Ghosts
A companion piece to Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, Pictures of Ghosts is a lovely, relaxed, ruminative riff on movies, memory, the imaginative space conferred by that place we call Cinema, seasoned with love and boundless anecdotes.
It's a Wonderful Life
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. This Christmas classic is whimsical, sure, but it has the depth to stand up to multiple watches, and it really should be a communal experience, because that is what it's about.