A Film by Marco Bellocchio

1858, the Jewish quarter of Bologna. The Popes soldiers burst into the home of the bourgeoisie Mortara family: by order of the cardinal, they have come to take six-year-old Edgardo to Rome. Unbeknownst to his parents Momolo and Marianna, Edgardo had been secretly baptised by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education, thus, his parents must either convert or lose him forever. The Motaras struggles to have their son returned soon takes a political dimension, driven by the support of public opinion and the international Jewish community, but the Church and ultimately Pope Pius IX himself stand resolute in the face of criticism, aiming to consolidate their increasingly wavering power.