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Kidnapped

354 votes

The story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents’ struggle to free their son became part of a larger political battle that pitted the papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification.

Status: Released

Released Date: 2023-05-25

Runtime: 134 mins

Director: Marco Bellocchio

Spoken language: עִבְרִית, Italiano, Latin

Genres: Drama, History

Original title: Kidnapped

Production Companies: The Match Factory, IBC MOvie, Kavac Film, RAI Cinema, Ad Vitam Production, BR, ARTE France Cinéma

Production Countries: Italy, France, Germany

Cast

Edgardo Mortara (child)

Enea Sala

Leonardo Maltese

Paolo Pierobon

Fausto Russo Alesi

Barbara Ronchi

Andrea Gherpelli

Samuele Teneggi

Corrado Invernizzi

Filippo Timi

Fabrizio Gifuni

Paolo Calabresi

Aurora Camatti

Bruno Cariello

Walter Lippa

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Based on a bizarre true story, this follows the tale of the young Edgardo Sala who was living quite happily with his Jewish parents and siblings in Bologna until an official arrives one evening to tell them he is to be removed from their care. Why? It appears that many years earlier when he was in his cradle, he has been baptised and so must therefore be looked after by the church. Despite their appeals and protestations, he is swiftly taken to Rome where he is enrolled in a Catholic school where his is pretty thoroughly indoctrinated into the ways of his new Church - even becoming of special interest to Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon). The story really centres around the trial many year later of the Papal Officer Feletti (Fabrizio Gifuni) after the city had become part of the Italian Kingdom, and those proceedings are used to fill in some of the backstory and to test the theories of responsibility of actions done in the name of the State. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the young man grows up to become conflicted - his love of Jesus struggles with his love of family and of the Talmud that was so important to him as a child. What I didn't really understand was just why the Pope would ever been at all interested in the fate of a small Jewish lad when the Papal States were in permanent decline, but Marco Bellochio uses a solid cast and a sparing, but frequently impassioned, amount of dialogue to deliver a stylishly made intrigue that show the last vestiges of the once all-powerful Papacy and of the inconsequential hopes of a family and a small boy.

2024-04-27

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