KIDNAPPED: THE ABDUCTION OF EDGARDO MORTARA
Co-Presented by Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media
Nearly 60 years after the release of his seminal breakthrough FISTS IN THE POCKET, Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio proves that his furious energy hasn’t waned a bit with this sumptuously mounted costume drama, which wowed audiences at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. KIDNAPPED is the unbelievable true story of Edgardo Mortara (Enea Sala), a six-year-old boy forcibly taken from his Jewish family in 1858 and sent to live in the Vatican. Despite his parents’ desperate pleas and a mounting international uproar, traditionalist Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon) refuses to back down, forcing Edgardo to renounce his faith and become an observant Catholic. Vividly conjuring a tumultuous era of Italian history, Bellocchio captures the fascinating historical context surrounding the Mortara case, which occurred just as the unification of Italy threatened the papacy’s control. KIDNAPPED is both a grandly entertaining melodrama and a sobering reminder of antisemitism’s pervasive influence.
CAST: Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi
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