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