Based on incredible true events, this gripping historical drama from master auteur Marco Bellocchio (The Traitor IFF20, Vincere IFF09) follows the story of a young boy whose abduction from his parents by the Vatican fuelled outrage in 19th-century Italy and triggered a global scandal.
1858, the Jewish quarter of Bologna. The Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the bourgeois Mortara family: by order of the cardinal (Filippo Timi, also in The Eight Mountains). Unbeknownst to his parents, Edgardo was secretly baptised by his nurse as a baby, so they have come to take six-year-old Edgardo to Rome to receive a Catholic education as per papal law.
7-time winner at the 2023 Nastri D’Argento Awards, Bellochio’s powerful and operatic new film probes historical antisemitism and the arbitrary exercises of influence by the pre-unification Church. Since its lauded Cannes debut, Kidnapped has reignited debate in Italy, where the actions of Pope Pius IX – who was beatified in the year 2000 - have never been officially condemned.
Tuesday 19th September
134 min
M
Barbara Ronchi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Paolo Pierobon, Leonardo Maltese, Fausto Russo Alesi, Enea Sala
Marco Bellocchio
Film Festival
Palace Barracks
