Paolo Pierobon and Enea Sala in Kidnapped [Anna Camerlingo]

KIDNAPPED
Directed by Marco Bellocchio
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆☆

KIDNAPPED is a combination of perfect film-making and a devastating true story. Marco Bellocchio, now well into his 80s, has never shied away from telling stories of Italy’s past – and goes to places that shine a cruel light.

Here he travels back to the 1800s. Edgardo Mortara (Enea Sala) was six years old when Papal authorities stole him from his Bologna home. A maid had secretly baptised him when he was two, fearful he may not live past childhood, and would be condemned for eternity if he was not converted.

The Catholic church gets wind and decides that little Edgardo must be ripped from his family and sent to Rome where the Pope would raise him as a Catholic.

The tale begins with parents Momolo (Fausto Russo Alesi) and Marianna (Barbara Ronchi) blessing their new born in Hebrew. They are heard by a piously Catholic maid. Fast forward six years and the family are blossoming – until a visit from a jobsworth yet sympathetic officer (Bruno Cariello), who announces that their little boy, who says his prayers in Hebrew each night, is a Christian and must be raised as such.

Holy Inquisitor Felletti (Fabrizio Gifuni) is the Pope’s man in Bologna and is frightened of Vatican power. He illustrates the stubbornness the family will face.

We follow the trauma of Edgardo’s parents – stunning performances from Ronchi and Alesi – as they seek their boy. As he is swallowed by the all-powerful church, his parents did all they could – writing to Jewish societies across Europe, calling on the growing Italian liberal movements to highlight their cause – and never stopped banging on the Vatican door.

A gloriously evil Pope Pius XI (Paolo Pierobon) salivates over his new charge, while perhaps the most chilling is Felletti. His eyes are the personification of the Inquisition.

Leonardo Maltese, who plays the older Edgardo, shows us the impact of conversion.

Bellocchio warns of dogma and orthodoxy, and draws on the beautiful tragedy of religion.

Scenes are like Renaissance frescoes, light through stained glass, the locations as much a piece of art as the acting.

Bellocchio shows the power the fear of God had, and illustrates how those, whose behaviour through our lens is abominable, truly believed if they didn’t act the boy would suffer eternal damnation.

Today’s religious unrest shows that while this film may be a historic piece, the negatives of feverish faith are just as true today.