Kidnapped: The Abduction Of Edgardo Mortara tells the harrowing true story of a young Jewish boy forcibly taken by the Papal state and raised as a Christian in 19th-Century Italy. The film, acclaimed for its visual richness, has garnered accolades and is set for a U.S. release on May 24.
Marco Bellocchio Set For Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara Drama That Spielberg Had His Eye On (EXCLUSIVE)
Nick Vivarelli, provided by
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Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio (“The Traitor”) is set to reconstruct the true-life drama of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy kidnapped and converted to Catholicism in 1858. It’s a story that Steven Spielberg was in advanced stages to bring to the screen a few years ago.
Mortara was a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. 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. Mortara went on to become a priest in the Augustinian order.