«The Hand of God is a personal and intimate movie. It’s the first time in my career, it is a coming of age cheerful and painful. The movie is based upon me and talks about my personal experience and I made it because I wanted my sons to understand why I’m always silent and reserved. But it is not an autobiographical movie, there are no specific references related to me, but it is an ensemble of personal experiences, made up tales and stories other people told me». Paolo Sorrentino explains what forced him to face the trauma he experienced when he was a teenager. Sorrentine transfigures the events in this come back to a feature film after the happy and lucky experience on the two series The Young Pope and The New Pope.
The Hand of God drives us to Naples during the ‘80s. The young Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) goes to the stadium to watch a match of the Napoli team, but he doesn’t know that decision will save him from the tragic destiny that will hit his parents. Maybe The Hand of God saved him that in Naples means the hand of Diego Armando Maradona. Sorrentino’s film has a double meaning starting from the title itself. The reference to Maradona’s goal in the quarter finals match against England in Mexico 86 World Cup is quite clear. But it is in the most intimate interpretation where lies the poetic sublimation of the story and Maradona has a minor role even if decisive. Sorrentino’s parents died while asleep, killed by carbon monoxide during a holiday in the Italian mountside. Paolo was in Empoli, Tuscany, for the Napoli football match and then his life was saved by the hand of God. This movie is a kind of “coming home” for the director, because it is his first movie shot in Naples after his debut L’uomo in più (2001). This return is the ideal closure of an artistic, human and emotional path that seems to be the production value of this movie. Toni Servillo si Sorrentino’s alter ego once more, working with him for the sixth time after L’uomo in più, The Great Beauty Grande Bellezza, Le conseguenze dell’amore (2003) Il Divo (2008) and Them (2018).
The Hand of God
Italy 2021, by Paolo Sorrentino with Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betti Pedrazzi, Biagio Manna, Ciro Capano, Lenght 130’
distribution Netflix
