‘Kidnapped’ Review: A Bittersweet Tale of Childhood Resilience
thewrap.comCannes-premiering “Kidnapped” offers the comforting pleasures of a cracking tale well told, a handsome tour of Old World locales and a throwback mix of Big Themes served on heaping platters.The story certainly lends itself to such heft, as it follows the true tale of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy confiscated from his family by the all-powerful church and raised to be a priest.
What pushed the local authorities to turn up unannounced one night — making demands of a Jewish family that would echo persecutions past and to come – becomes clear when church police set their sight on a 6-year-old boy and tell his parents, “Someone betrayed you.
Someone baptized your son in secret. “In the ironclad theocracy of the Papal States, Jews couldn’t house Christians and church authority was never in question.
Not that beleaguered parents Momolo (Fausto Russo Alesi) and Marianna (Barbara Ronchi) don’t try their best. In real life, as in the film, the Mortara family turned their child’s abduction into an international scandal, drawing support from liberal reformers and Jewish organizations across Europe and North America, and in doing so created a wealth of archival materials for Bellocchio to explore.In hewing the historical record, “Kidnapped” evolves in tone and tenor as the story goes on.
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