The film brings for the first time the story of the Israeli radio station Beit Shidir. With the establishment of the State of Israel and the immigration of Jews from Arab countries, the radio station was an active site for producing intelligence and political warfare against Arab countries in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.From the outside, it was a radio station that broadcast news and songs in Arabic, whereas in practice, the broadcasts were used by the administration for propaganda, psychological warfare, changing public opinion in Arab countries, and activating agents through codes implanted within the broadcasts. Soon the broadcasts became the most terrifying threat that agitated the rulers of the Arab world, and the broadcasters in it were named by the competing radio stations ‘The Israel Broadcasting Corporation’s Propaganda Orchestra’.
Palme d’Or winning director Marco Bellochio tells the true story of the Mortara family. In the Jewish quarter of Bologna in 1858, it was discovered that the seven-year-old son of the Mortara family was secretly baptized as a baby by his nurse. On this matter, the Papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education. So by order of the Cardinal, soldiers seize their child. Distraught, his parents will do anything to get their son back. Supported by public opinion and the international Jewish community, the family’s struggle quickly take on a political dimension and becomes entangled in the larger clash between the realms of Catholic authoritarianism and the aspirations for equality and the unification of Italy.