A story once in the hands of Steven Spielberg to adapt, 84-year-old Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s latest film Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara follows a seven-year-old Jewish boy who was taken from his family in Bologna to be raised Catholic in the actual arms of Pope Pius IX. Conveyed in sweeping operatic fashion, Kidnapped is a feat of production design and compelling study of both political and religious power, even when certain stagnant passages leave something to be desired. Ahead of a theatrical release from Cohen Media Group starting May 24, preceded by a director retrospective at NYC’s Quad Cinema beginning next week, the U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “From one of Italy’s most revered directors, Marco Bellocchio, comes Kidnapped, the true story of Edgardo Mortara. Mortara was a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, when in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family by the Pope, to be raised Catholic. 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.”
See the trailer below and read Luke Hicks’ Cannes review for more.
