Rapito

Continuing his interest in Italian history, Marco Bellocchio’s Rapito tackles the real case of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy taken from his family and raised Catholic by the Papal authorities. The action starts in 1852, when the city of Bologna was still governed by the Papal State. Part thriller, part intimate drama, part analysis of power structures, Bellocchio builds a poignant story that switches between the tireless efforts of the Mortara family to recover their son and the Church’s indoctrination of Edgardo (a six-year-old torn between the strangeness of a foreign religion and the need to adapt in order to survive).

Rapito pays close attention to the rituals, beliefs and symbols organising life in both faiths – while offering a merciless portrait of Pius IX, a Pope-king internally terrorised by his own prejudices but enjoying unlimited power and ambition. As is habitual in Bellocchio’s cinema, the world of the imaginary comes to life in scenes that range from the satirically surreal to the ecstatic. Ultimately, this intrigue full of despair, intensity and longing is a film that, like his Vincere (2009), bears witness to the terrible psychic disturbances suffered by individuals whose origins are obliterated or unrecognised.

– Cristina Álvarez López

Did you know that Marco Bellocchio will be joining us for a Talk this year? Find out more here.