The story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents’ struggle to free their son became part of a larger political battle that pitted the papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification.
Acting
Barbara Ronchi's anguish could shatter stone.
Direction
Bellocchio turns bureaucratic horror into operatic trauma.
Production
The Vatican as gilded prison, suffocating in velvet and candlelight.
Director
Marco Bellocchio
Enea Sala
Edgardo Mortara (child)
Leonardo Maltese
Edgardo Mortara
Paolo Pierobon
Pio IX
Fausto Russo Alesi
Momolo Mortara
Barbara Ronchi
Marianna Mortara
Andrea Gherpelli
Angelo Padovani
Samuele Teneggi
Riccardo Mortara
Corrado Invernizzi
Giudice Carboni
Filippo Timi
Giacomo Antonelli
Fabrizio Gifuni
Pier Gaetano Feletti
Paolo Calabresi
Sabatino Scazzocchio
Bruno Cariello
Maresciallo Lucidi
Walter Lippa
Angelo Moscati
Alessandro Bandini
Padre Mariano
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pio IX's Mortara defense became his political identity; he turned one boy into a symbol of papal infallibility that outlived Italian unification itself.
The case sparked transatlantic Jewish activism and helped birth modern international human rights advocacy—Edgardo's name was invoked in early Zionist congresses.
IT
