Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara is Marco Bellocchio’s historical drama about the 1858 removal of a seven-year-old Jewish boy from his family by authorities of the Papal States. Released in Italy as Rapito, the film dramatizes the claim that Edgardo Mortara had been secretly baptized while seriously ill as an infant—and the Church’s decision that this baptism made him a Catholic child who could not legally be raised by Jewish parents.
This is not a documentary. It is a carefully staged historical feature about the collision between religious law, papal sovereignty, parental rights, Jewish identity, antisemitism, and the political crisis that eventually helped bring down the Papal States. The word “kidnapped” describes the event from the family’s and modern observers’ perspective; Church authorities defended the seizure through the legal and theological framework of baptism and Catholic education.
At a glance
| Original title | Rapito |
|---|---|
| U.S. title | Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara |
| Director and co-writer | Marco Bellocchio |
| Production | Italy, France, and Germany |
| Year | 2023 |
| Runtime | Approximately 125 minutes in the Cannes listing; 134 minutes in U.S. distributor materials |
| Original languages | Italian and Hebrew, with English subtitles |
| U.S. theatrical release | May 24, 2024, according to Cohen Media Group |
| World premiere | 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Official Competition, under the title Rapito |
The difference in listed runtimes is a distributor discrepancy rather than evidence of two entirely different films. Viewers should check the runtime attached to the specific edition they plan to watch.
What happened to Edgardo Mortara?
Edgardo Mortara was born into a Jewish family in Bologna. In 1858, when he was approximately seven years old, Papal soldiers took him from his parents, Momolo and Marianna Mortara. The immediate reason was a report that a nurse or domestic servant had secretly performed an emergency baptism when Edgardo was believed to be gravely ill.
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Once Church authorities learned of the alleged baptism, they treated the matter as more than a private family dispute. Under the prevailing legal and theological logic of the Papal States, baptism made Edgardo a Catholic. A baptized child, in the Church’s view, required Catholic religious education and could not simply be returned to a Jewish household for upbringing.
The Mortaras did not accept that reasoning. They resisted the separation and sought the return of their son. Their campaign soon attracted support from liberal Italian opinion, Jewish communities outside Italy, and observers across Europe and the United States. What began as a family tragedy became an international controversy over the authority of the papacy, the rights of parents, and the power of a state to decide a child’s religious identity.
Why the title calls it a kidnapping
The title deliberately places the reader or viewer inside the moral and political language of the Mortara family’s experience. Soldiers arrived with the authority of the Papal States and removed a child from his parents without their consent. In modern terms, that is naturally described as an abduction or kidnapping.
But the film’s central conflict becomes clearer when the historical actors’ own justification is not ignored. Church officials did not describe themselves as criminals stealing a child. They believed that a valid baptism had created a religious obligation that superseded the parents’ authority. Their position depended on a sacramental doctrine backed by the laws of a sovereign papal state.
That distinction does not make the separation less coercive, and it does not require the viewer to accept the Church’s argument. It explains why the case became so explosive: two incompatible ideas of authority confronted each other. The Mortaras understood themselves as a family defending its child. Church officials understood themselves as protecting a Catholic soul and enforcing the law of their state.
A family case that became a political crisis
Kidnapped is not only about religion versus family. The Mortara affair also exposed the unusual political structure of nineteenth-century Italy. The Pope was not merely a spiritual leader; he was the temporal ruler of the Papal States, including Bologna. The institutions that claimed jurisdiction over Edgardo therefore combined ecclesiastical authority with the coercive power of government.
The case became part of the wider argument over the Papal States and the Risorgimento, the movement for Italian unification. Liberal critics used the Mortara seizure as evidence that papal rule placed religious authority above civil liberty, family rights, and modern ideas of citizenship. The international reaction likewise showed that the papacy’s decisions could no longer remain insulated from European public opinion.
The controversy also had a distinct Jewish dimension. Jewish communities outside Italy followed the Mortara family’s efforts and treated the case as a warning about the vulnerability of Jewish families living under Catholic political rule. The resulting campaign connected local persecution, international Jewish solidarity, liberal nationalism, and opposition to the Pope’s temporal power.
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Bellocchio’s film turns this political and religious dispute into an intimate family drama. The story moves between the Mortara household, the Church hierarchy, public controversy, and Edgardo’s experience as a child caught between identities imposed by adults and institutions.
The director has long been interested in the relationship between personal psychology and powerful institutions. Here, religious certainty is not presented simply as an abstract doctrine. It appears through officials and believers who regard their actions as necessary, even when those actions produce profound suffering. That perspective gives the film its unsettling quality: the institutional logic is intelligible without being morally neutral.
The film also examines how a child’s identity can be claimed by competing communities. Edgardo is not treated only as an individual separated from his parents; he becomes a symbol of Catholic authority, Jewish family continuity, liberal opposition to the Papal States, and the Church’s determination to defend its sacramental claims.
Because it is a dramatic adaptation, the film should not be treated as a literal transcript of every conversation or event. Bellocchio uses screenplay compression, visual symbolism, and characterization to interpret a contested historical case. The film can make the emotional and institutional stakes vivid, but a nonfiction history is the better place to check chronology, documents, and the full range of historical interpretations.
Cast and characters
The film’s principal cast includes:
- Paolo Pierobon as Pope Pius IX
- Fausto Russo Alesi as Momolo Mortara
- Barbara Ronchi as Marianna Mortara
- Enea Sala as the child Edgardo
- Leonardo Maltese as the adult Edgardo
- Filippo Timi as Cardinal Antonelli
- Fabrizio Gifuni as Pier Gaetano Feletti
The use of separate actors for child and adult Edgardo reflects the film’s interest in the long-term consequences of the separation, not merely the raid on the Mortara home. At the same time, viewers should avoid reducing Edgardo’s later adult beliefs to a simple, uncontested result of the abduction. His adult life and religious identity belong to the historical record’s more complicated territory, and the film presents them through its own dramatic interpretation.
Bellocchio’s route to the Mortara story
Bellocchio has said that he first encountered the Mortara case through a book by Vittorio Messori, a Catholic and conservative writer whose interpretation defended the reasons the Church gave for separating Edgardo from his family. That origin matters because the film did not emerge from a politically neutral anecdote. Bellocchio came to the project through an existing argument about whether the Church’s conduct could be understood—or defended—within its own religious and legal system.
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The completed film is therefore best approached as Bellocchio’s dramatic engagement with competing interpretations of the case. It neither turns the story into a simple procedural reconstruction nor removes the ideological conflict at its center.
The film and David I. Kertzer’s book
The most useful English-language nonfiction companion is David I. Kertzer’s The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. Kertzer reconstructs the Mortara family’s efforts to recover Edgardo and places the affair within the political history of the Papal States and Italian unification. His book was a National Book Award finalist and won the National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish-Christian relations category.
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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →If the film leaves you wanting the documented historical background, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara paperback is the most direct next step. The Vintage paperback is listed at 368 pages, carries ISBN 9780679768173, and was published on June 30, 1998; the book was originally published by Knopf in 1997. It supplies context that a two-hour-plus drama must compress, especially concerning the Mortara family’s campaign, international reaction, and the political decline of papal temporal power.
Bellocchio’s film is not identical to Kertzer’s book and should not be described as a straightforward screen adaptation of every part of it. Kertzer’s study is a historical reconstruction; Kidnapped is a feature film shaped by interpretation, performance, staging, and symbolism. Reading the two together is useful precisely because they answer different questions: the book asks what can be reconstructed from the record, while the film asks how the case can be experienced as a crisis of family, faith, and power.
Do not confuse it with the abandoned Spielberg project
David Kertzer’s website records that Steven Spielberg announced an intended film adaptation of the book in 2016, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner. That project was delayed and did not become Bellocchio’s completed film. Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara is Bellocchio’s Rapito, not Spielberg’s adaptation.
Premiere, release, and where to watch
Rapito premiered in the Official Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The film later received official selections at the New York Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, AFI Fest, Chicago International Film Festival, Middleburg Film Festival, and Philadelphia Film Festival.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →For the United States, Cohen Media Group lists a theatrical release date of May 24, 2024. Its U.S. title page identifies digital buy-or-rent options through Apple TV/iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango at Home/Vudu, and other retailers. Apple’s U.S. listing describes the film as a historical drama based on a true story that attracted international attention and became connected to the political history of Italian unification.
Digital catalogs, prices, subtitles, and rental windows change by territory and over time. Before purchasing, U.S. viewers should check the current listing for the exact title, runtime, subtitle options, and whether the transaction is a rental or purchase. The distributor’s listing does not establish that the same services or terms are available worldwide.
A DVD or other physical edition may also be available in the United States, but stock, region coding, and retailer listings should be verified before publication or purchase. The existence of a reported July 2, 2024 U.S. DVD release is not a guarantee that a particular retailer currently has copies.
Is Kidnapped a documentary?
No. Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara is a historical drama directed and co-written by Marco Bellocchio. It uses actors, a scripted narrative, and dramatic reconstruction rather than the documentary form.
It can still be valuable for viewers interested in documentary subjects because it opens onto a well-documented historical controversy. But it should be paired with Kertzer’s nonfiction study or other reliable historical research rather than used as the sole source for claims about what happened. In particular, viewers should distinguish between documented events, disputed interpretations, and scenes created to convey the film’s emotional or symbolic argument.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Reception
At the Rotten Tomatoes snapshot included in the research materials, the film had an 86% Tomatometer score from 70 reviews and a 72% audience score based on fewer than 50 ratings. These figures are volatile and should be checked again if a current score is published. The relatively small audience sample also makes the audience percentage less informative than the review count and the substance of individual criticism.
The stronger critical question is whether Bellocchio successfully represents the case as a collision of authorities rather than a one-dimensional dispute between religion and family. The film’s subject brings together papal sovereignty, Catholic sacramental doctrine, Jewish communal identity, parental rights, antisemitism, liberal public opinion, and the emerging Italian national project. That intersection is what gives the Mortara story continuing force.
Who should watch it?
This film is particularly suited to viewers interested in European religious history, the Papal States, the Risorgimento, Jewish-Christian relations, historical dramas, and stories about institutional power and family separation. It is less suitable for anyone expecting a conventional documentary with archival interviews, expert commentary, or a comprehensive chronology.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Content considerations include the forced removal of a child, antisemitic and religiously coercive attitudes, family trauma, and scenes involving intense institutional pressure. The historical premise itself is distressing: the family’s inability to protect Edgardo was not the result of a private misunderstanding but of the coercive authority of a state-backed Church structure.
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Key takeaway
Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara is most powerful when understood as a film about competing claims to authority. The Mortara family claimed the right to raise their son; Church officials claimed the right to educate a baptized Catholic; the Papal States claimed the power to enforce that decision; and liberal and Jewish observers challenged the legitimacy of the entire system. Bellocchio’s drama does not replace the historical record, but it gives this collision a human face—and makes clear why the Mortara case became an international scandal and a political liability for papal rule.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara about?
It dramatizes the 1858 removal of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy in Bologna, from his family by authorities of the Papal States after a claim that he had been secretly baptized as an infant. Church officials argued that baptism made him Catholic and required Catholic education; his parents and their supporters demanded his return.
Is Kidnapped based on a true story?
Yes. The film is based on the historical Mortara case, but it is a scripted historical drama rather than a documentary. Individual scenes, dialogue, chronology, and character emphasis are shaped by Marco Bellocchio’s interpretation.
Is Bellocchio’s film based on David Kertzer’s book?
Kertzer’s The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara is an important nonfiction account and a useful companion to the film, but Bellocchio’s completed movie should not be described as a literal adaptation of the book. The film and the book approach the same historical case through different forms.
Where can viewers watch the film in the United States?
Cohen Media Group’s U.S. listing identifies buy-or-rent availability through Apple TV/iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango at Home/Vudu, and other retailers. Availability, price, subtitles, and rental terms can change, so viewers should check the current listing for their territory.
Was Kidnapped the Steven Spielberg version of the Mortara story?
No. Spielberg announced a planned adaptation of Kertzer’s book in 2016, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, but that project was delayed. Bellocchio’s completed film is the 2023 Italian production Rapito, released in the United States as Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara is a 2023 historical drama—not a documentary—that uses one child’s forced removal to examine baptism, parental rights, Jewish identity, papal power, and the political crisis of the Papal States. Watch the film for Bellocchio’s interpretation, then turn to David Kertzer’s nonfiction book for the fuller historical reconstruction.
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