Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara: somber, serious, and precise, Marco Bellocchio’s retelling of the story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy abducted from his family by the Catholic church, is essentially a procedural. The film effectively mixes the legal side, the political ramifications, and the emotional toll on the boy and his family. The tone is somewhat clinical and cold, but the story doesn’t need melodramatic flourishes to be touching and enraging. Acting is subdued and efficient: Paolo Pierobon and Fabrizio Gifuni play the two main antagonists of the story (the Pope and the inquisition priest directly responsible for the kidnapping) with an amount of wicked self-righteousness that is usual for tyrants. Enea Sala plays the title character, and he is a charming and serious boy. Production design (by Andrea Castorina) and costume design (by Sergio Ballo and Daria Calvelli ) are quietly well-done, as is the camerawork of cinematographer Francesco Di Giacomo. Composer Fabio Massimo Capogrosso saves the most bombastic moments of his musical score to the opening and closing credits.