The chilling true-story Italian-language drama “Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara” (originally “Rapito”) depicts the strange but true kidnapping of a 6-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna in 1858, on orders of the Pope after hearing that the boy had been baptized secretly by the family’s maid when he was a baby. 

The kidnapping launched the boy’s family, the Mortaras, on a long fight to recover him from the Pope’s control, where he was being indoctrinated into the Catholic Church. The captivating and powerful historical drama by legendary Italian auteur director Marco Bellocchio gives us a visually stunning historical film with the sweep of epic. 

This once-famous event is retold as a tense, chilling drama, as the prosperous Jewish family relentlessly battles powerful forces. The film is set against the backdrop of political upheaval in Italy, as the country is uniting to form to modern state of Italy.

This shameful incident was once a cause celebre in 19th century Europe and even the U.S., but it has been forgotten over the decades. Modern viewers might wonder how the Pope could wield such power over a Jewish family, but at the time the kidnapping took place, Bologna was part of the Papal States ruled over by the Pope as King, as had been the case since the 800s. 

Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon) ordered the child be taken after Bologna’s Inquisitor, Friar Gaetano Feletti (Fabrizio Gifuni), reported that Anna Morisi (Aurora Camatti), a former servant of Salomone Mortara (Fausto Russo Alesi) and his wife Marianna Padovani Mortara (Barbara Ronchi), claimed to have baptized the Mortara’s son Edgardo in secret when he was two months old, while he was ill and she feared he might die. The Pope had declared previously that once baptized, a child was forever Catholic and that a Catholic child could not be raised by a non-Christian family, which led to the order to Feletti that the child be taken. 

Still, that kidnapping did not happen all at once but by a series of bureaucratic steps. The story that unfolds is strange and twisty, revealing the Pope’s deep antisemitism, and taking place while the storm clouds of political change already gathering. Although the Pope-King had ruled the Papal States for centuries, political change was on the horizon, as popular uprisings were sweeping through Europe, including in Italy, in the 1800s.

The screenplay was adapted by Bellocchio and Susanna Nicchiarelli from Daniele Scalise’s non-fiction book “The Mortara Case,” with input from Edoardo Albinati and Daniela Ceselli.

The upper, middle-class Mortaras, father Salomone and mother Marianna, had a large family and a good life, but now they face government forces who want to take away their 6-year-old son Edgardo (Enea Sala), who is one of the couple’s younger middle children. When confronted with this bizarre situation, Edgardo’s mother vigorously resisted but Edgardo’s father wanted to take a more cautious, legal-based approach. He appealed to both the local Catholic authorities and the Jewish community leaders in Bologna, then sent appeals for assistance to Jewish leaders and organizations in France and Britain. Still, at one point, when the Pope’s forces show up to take the boy, his father grabs him and attempts to drop the boy out of a window to friends waiting below to catch him. The father hesitates when the boy cries out in fear and the child is snatched by the Pope’s forces. 

The parents are told by Feletti, the inquisitor who is in charge locally, that they will be able to visit the boy in a few days and he will remain in Bologna. Instead, he is sent in secret to Rome, where he joins other boys in a kind of papal boarding school, along with at least some other Jewish boys.  

The film is masterfully directed and beautifully shot, with striking Italian locations and period details, but it never gets too caught up in costume drama, retaining its nail-biting suspense and unsettling tension throughout. 

The acting is superb, with Enea Sala as the younger Edgardo a particular standout. The film is emotional and intense, with Fausto Russo Alesi particularly good as the boy’s father, convinced he will find a way to recover his son. Barbara Ronchi is fiery and defiant as Edgardo’s fierce mother, and Edgardo’s equally fiery older brother Riccardo (Samuele Teneggi), who attempts to rescue him. Paolo Pierobon is haunting as the powerful Pope, and Fabrizio Gifuni is effectively chilling as Bologna’s Inquisitor, Feletti.

This strange but true story creates a persistently chilling tension, along with moments of hope and heartbreak. While the film is not without its flaws, it is undeniable gripping and deeply emotional, and recounts a shameful, now-forgotten incident that deserves to be remembered.  

“Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara,” in Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew with English subtitles, opens Friday, June 14, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema (the print version of this story included an opening date of June 7, but that date was changed to June 14 after the paper had gone to press).