Kidnapped: The Mystery of the Mortara Case

Release Date：May/24/2024

Genre：Drama/History

Director：Marco Bellocchio

Cast：Paolo Pierobon、Fausto Russo Alesi、Barbara Ronchi、Enea Sala、Leonardo Maltese

Viola's Rating：7.8

Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s latest feature film, Kidnapped, was nominated as one of the official competition selections at the 76th Cannes Film Festival and had a limited release in the US on May 24, 2024. 

As a coproduction between France, Germany and Italy, this historical drama is loosely based on the Mortara Case from the 1850s and 1860s. The film tells the story of a Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara (Enea Sala), who was kidnapped and converted to Catholicism in 1858.

While Kidnapped aims to use magical realism through dreams or moving images, it doesn’t entirely succeed because the audience might struggle to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Although this might serve the purpose of magical realism, it also adds confusion since the flick deals with a real historical event.

Limbo, a concept from Catholic theology, plays a critical role in Kidnapped. This concept appears not only in religious contexts but also in literature, such as in Dante’s narrative poem, Divine Comedy. For those not familiar with Christianity, the most well-known depiction of limbo in modern pop culture is in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Even though limbo in Inception isn’t portrayed as part of the underworld, it retains the idea of an infinite subconscious realm after death.

Generally, audiences experience Kidnapped through the perspective of the protagonist, Edgardo, as he grows up. However, the motion picture mainly focuses on his childhood and adulthood during the Unification of Italy. It’s unfortunate that his teenage years aren’t depicted, as this period is crucial for developing critical thinking. According to The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by American academic, anthropologist and historian David Israel Kertzer, Edgardo wrote numerous letters to his family during his teenage years, trying to convert them to Catholicism. Including this in the movie could have added more conflict and allowed viewers to see more interactions between Edgardo and his family.

Although Christianity and Judaism share the same roots, Christianity branched off, with Roman Catholicism being the largest denomination. It’s not hard to imagine the religious tension in the late 19th century. However, the concept of kidnapping was unacceptable to the general public, which is why the Mortara Case garnered worldwide attention.

Despite some storytelling elements that could have been better handled, Kidnapped is still worth watching. The intense and bustling orchestral string scores create a tense and unsettling atmosphere, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

Picture Credit: Light Year Images