Marco Bellocchio's 'Rapito' Premieres at Cannes 2023
Marco Bellocchio returns to the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 with 'Rapito', a film based on the true story of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy taken from his family in 1857 by papal authorities on the orders of Pope Pius IX after a Catholic maid secretly baptized him. The film explores themes of kidnapping, betrayal, religious oppression, and family trauma set against the backdrop of the Italian Risorgimento and the decline of papal temporal power. Bellocchio describes the act as a crime committed in the name of an absolute principle, highlighting the violent resistance of a dying authority. The film premieres in the Official Selection at Cannes.
Key facts
- Marco Bellocchio's film 'Rapito' premieres at Cannes 2023 in the Official Selection.
- The film recounts the 1857 kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy, by papal gendarmes.
- The kidnapping was ordered by Pope Pius IX after a Catholic maid secretly baptized the child.
- Edgardo Mortara was taken to Rome and raised Catholic, later becoming a priest.
- The story unfolds during the Italian Risorgimento and the fall of the Papal States.
- Bellocchio calls the kidnapping a crime justified by absolute religious principle.
- The film stars Fabrizio Gifuni as Pope Pius IX.
- Edgardo Mortara died in 1940 in a monastery in Bouhay, Belgium.
Entities
Artists
- Marco Bellocchio
- Fabrizio Gifuni
- Edgardo Mortara
- Salomone (Momolo) Mortara
- Marianna Padovani
- Pope Pius IX
Institutions
- Cannes Film Festival
- Sant'Uffizio dell'Inquisizione
- Canonici Regolari Lateranensi
- Santa Romana Chiesa
- Artribune
Locations
- Cannes
- France
- Rome
- Italy
- Bologna
- Bouhay
- Belgium
- San Pietro in Vincoli