The latest film by veteran Italian
auteur Marco Bellocchio, Rapito (Kidnapped), the true story of a
six-year-old Jewish boy abducted by Pope Pius IX in the mid 19th
century, wowed the Cannes Film Festival Tuesday night receiving
an ovation of 13 minutes.
The film, which 83-year-old Bellocchio has said he would like
Pope Francis to see, also impressed the critics with the
Guardian's Peter Bradshaw giving it five out of five stars under
the title "Marco Bellocchio's antisemitism drama is a classic in
the making".
The article said: "Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy
kidnapped by papal authorities, this is a full-tilt melodrama
that lays bare tyranny, bigotry and the abuse of power in the
Catholic church."
Bradshaw said: "I thrilled to this movie: the moment when the
pope playfully hides Edgardo in his cloak while he plays
hide-and-seek is an extraordinary parallel to when he first hid
in his mother's skirts. My heart was in my mouth when Edgardo is
carried off by the brutal authorities. And at the end, when the
older, agonised Edgardo comes to see his mother on her deathbed,
Bellocchio creates a denouement that made me gasp.
"This already looks like a classic."
Variety agreed with Bradshaw's assessment with reviewer Jessica
King saying the film was "an imposing almost Dickensian
classic...a film that is warmly recommended".
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