Marco Bellocchio – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

KIDNAPPED (Melbourne IFF 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 14, 2023August 14, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Edgardo Mortara, Italian, Kidnapped, Marco Bellocchio, Melbourne IFF 2023, Paolo Pierobon, Susanna Nicchiarell

Don’t let the fact that Italian stalwart Marco Bellocchio is now in his 80s fool you – with his 26th feature Kidnapped, he still shows no signs of slowing down. Playing out as a historical melodrama, it is based on the notorious real life Mortara case, an Italian scandal that gained international attention when the Papal State under the rule of Pope Pius IX abducted six-year-old Edgardo Mortara and forcibly removed him from his Jewish family in 1858.

Reviews

THE TRAITOR – Review by Diane Carson

February 19, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments cosa nostra, Marco Bellocchio, the traitor, Tommaso Buscetta, truth-based

Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s film The Traitor takes a deep dive into the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, spanning three continents and two decades. Based on real events, the traitor of the title is Tommaso Buscetta, a reluctant informant who becomes alienated from the criminal world of which he’s a part after September 1980 when heroin becomes the illegal product trafficked.