Kidnapped

Based on incredible true events, the gripping new historical drama from master auteur Marco Bellocchio (The Traitor, Good Morning Night, Vincere) 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 bourgeoisie Mortara family: by order of the cardinal (Filippo Timi), they have come to take six-year-old Edgardo (Enea Sala) to Rome. Unbeknownst to his parents Momolo (Fausto Russo Alesi) and Marianna (Barbara Ronchi), Edgardo had been secretly baptised by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education, thus, his parents must either convert or lose him forever. The Motara’s struggles to have their son returned soon takes a political dimension, driven by the support of public opinion and the international Jewish community, but the Church and ultimately Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon) himself stand resolute in the face of criticism, aiming to consolidate their increasingly wavering power...