The 32nd annual Philadelphia Film Festival runs October 19-29, 2023 and features over 80 feature films (and numerous shorts!) from over 25 countries. Most films play twice and our own Justin Nordell will be sharing “Philly Film Fest Fast Reviews” to give you a taste of the festival so you can pick and choose which films to make for the second screenings!
In the dead of night there’s a knock at your front door. Law enforcement barges in and demands to count your children. Terrified you oblige, and as they ask each child’s name, they stop on your six year old son Edgardo. They are in your home on behalf of the Catholic Church because they’ve received word that your son was baptized and they need to immediately rescue him from your Jewish household and bring him to the papal enclave where he can be raised in the Christian way. But your son wasn’t baptized – not to your knowledge – and he has no recollection of it, but the Catholic Church says they have it on high authority that this occurred and have every right to taken him based on Papal law, which was sacrosanct at the time in Bologna.
The year is 1858 and this very real story of a legal kidnapping by the Catholic Church shocked the world when it happened nearly two hundred years ago. Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara captures the hopelessness of this poor family as they fight against the Catholic Church for years to bring their child home. I like a courtroom drama but I LOVE a historical courtroom drama, and Kidnapped plays out like the best episode of Nineteenth Century Law & Order Bologna… and that’s a good or bad thing depending on your appreciation of the subgenre.
Highlighting that the corruption of the Catholic Church and its corruption of young boys dates back centuries, the film makes no qualms about showing one sidedly that this was a crime committed. The heavy handedness takes a genuinely fascinating and devastating historical story and diminishes its significance with what ultimately becomes a beautiful (but stuffy) period piece.
Grade: B-
Catch it at PFF23: Sunday, October 29th at 12:15pm at the PFS East
Tickets available here.
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