Post-screening Q&A with Andrea Grover, translator, author, and NYU professor of Jewish-Italian History and Italian Culture

Director: Marco Bellocchio
2023; 134 minutes
Italian with English subtitles
Feature

This opulent period drama tells a true story: In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope’s soldiers forcibly remove seven-year-old Edgardo Mortara from his family’s home. The Church claims the boy was secretly baptized as an infant and so, according to papal law, must receive a Catholic education. The Mortaras use every legal means to bring their son home, supported by the Jewish community and international public opinion. Pope Pius IX refuses to return Edgardo and the Vatican takes an increasingly combative stance to consolidate their wavering power as democratic revolution foments across Italy.

Kidnapped premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and has screened at other prestigious international film festivals, including Toronto, New York, and London.

Co-sponsored by Judith Lieberman and Nancy & Richard Dinar