Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #13. Marco Bellocchio’s La conversione

Published on January 19, 2023

La conversione

The true story has put the fear of god in the directors who consider making it, but finally, it was Italian maestro Marco Bellocchio who took on the project on a person who goes by the name of Edgardo Mortara. An almost three-plus month shoot in Bologna and Rome, Marco Bellocchio co-wrote with Susanna Nicchiarelli (with the collaboration of Edoardo Albinati and Daniela Ceselli, and historical advice from Pina Totaro), this is the true-life drama set in 1858. La Conversione stars Paolo Pierobon, Barbara Ronchi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Enea Sala, playing Mortara as a child, and Leonardo Maltese, playing Mortara as an older boy. This was produced by Beppe Caschetto and Simone Gattoni.

Gist: This is about a Jewish child who in 1858 was removed from his family to be raised as a Catholic in the custody of Pope Pius IX.

Release Date/Prediction: This will take at least a good year in post production so we think this will vie for the Golden Lion in Venice.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).