Steven Spielberg was intending to direct a version of this story around 2016. He even was looking at casting the young boy's role though open auditions from Jewish Schools in Europe and America. Although he had cast Mark Rylance as Pope Pius IX and Oscar Isaac as the older Edgardo Mortara, Spielberg's inability to find the right child actor led to the project becoming stalled.
It was filmed in 2022, with location shooting in the Piazza Loris Minozzi in Roccabianca, near Parma, in the Palazzo d'Accursio in Bologna, in the San Barnaba church in Modena, and in the Sabbioneta synagogue near Montova.
It is based on Daniele Scalise's book "Il caso Mortara", albeit loosely. The book is itself based on a true story, the Mortara case, where a six-year-old Jewish boy was kidnapped by the Catholic Church in 1858 in Bologna.
Before the movie makers settled on "Rapito", the following titles were envisioned: "La conversione" and "Non possumus".
Selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered in May 2023.