Amidst the mountains of Naples, Paolo Sorrentino tells his own stories of boyhood, Cinema and Maradona. 

11:45pm, Oct. 29 2022


The Hand of God is a colourful and personal reference to Paulo Sorrentino’s youth in 1980s Naples — one of Italy’s legendary cities and the birthplace of Pizza. If there’s a type of movie I like, it’s the subgenre of autobiography where the director is bold enough to bare the foundational events of his soul to the audience. As told in The Hand of God, Fabio (Filippo Scotti) is an introverted teenage cinephile at the center of his garrulous family members. With his father, Saverio (Toni Servillo), they share a favorite film — Once Upon A Time in America. To Maria (Teresa Saponangelo) his mother, he'll always be her pet. He adores his older brother, Marchino (Marlon Joubert) and they share admiration for Federico Fellini and Diego Maradona. He never sees his elder sister who sits in the bathroom throughout the movie, he has a paralysing crush on his aunt, Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri) and his grandfather (Renato Carpentieri) with Argentine roots, has waited all his life to see Argentina take revenge on England.

Different characters, different personalities, and different languages, but the story lends itself to the universal. It highlights — and sometimes lingers on, the inescapable features of life. Dreams, family, friendship, love, and death. 

 

FAMILY FIRST. The seaside scene, where the extended family is gathered for lunch at a country home is a depiction of "the family" as the core of Italian society. Traditional, dark, Italian humor is on display as the family members wait for a relative to arrive with her new boyfriend — an aged policeman without a voice. When the family moves to the beach to hang out (in a scene reminiscent of Antonioni's L'Avventura), Patrizia first throws the batteries from the Policeman's voicer into the sea and then lies completely naked on the boat, shocking the whole family.


 “You must not call it exaggeration,” says Sorrentino. “This is my reality. It may look grotesque or caricatured to you but it’s not so exotic for Neapolitan people. This is how we are and how we were.” Through the family members, their eccentric behavior and jokes, the viewer get a glimpse into the personalities of different Italian generations post-World War Two. 





WOMEN. The women in The Hand Of God are beautiful. They embody Romanticism. Through their dreams, jokes, curses, solitude, and sexual awakenings, the force of their different personalities is felt and the story endures. Except during the 1986 World Cup game between Argentina and England, when Maradona took the spotlight in Fabio's Neapolitan neighborhood, throughout The Hand of God women are at the center of events, shaping experiences. Fabio's father talks to him about coming of age and the importance of dating a nice girl but it is with the Baroness (Betty Pedrazzi) he first has sex. This symbolizes Fabio's complete loss of innocence as events push him into a new phase of life. 




DREAMS. The Hand of God is wistful about dreams and those quiet moments in life between dreaming and living the dream — when nothing seems to happen. Fabio dreams of moving to Italy's capital and becoming a movie director. First, in seeking the freedom to move out on his own he makes a new friend in Armando (Biaggio Manna), a man who lives as he pleases, smuggling cigarettes in speedboats and blazing through Naples on a bike. Fabio sees freedom for the first time in Armando. Next, in an unsentimental scene, beautifully framed with the majestic Mount Vesuvius in the background, a heart-to-heart conversation is had with Antonio Capuano (a real-life mentor for Sorrentino) on what it takes to be a filmmaker and one senses that more than just a scene, there's a direct message from Sorrentino to aspiring filmmakers. One will then be able to connect with Fabio's dilemma of leaving Naples, a city he loves, for Rome — a city he's never been to, in pursuit of his dream.





LOVE. The death of old-school love is subtly alluded to, and almost with nostalgia. The love that defied generations, physics and disability, like Annarella and Aldo Cavallo's love. The sort of love that defied infidelity and kept Fabio's parents together. Born in the turmoil of 1930s Europe, theirs was a love that only death could part. A love that the younger generation seemed to yearn for. Inasmuch as Fabio loved to talk about movies and his brother loved acting, something always seemed to be missing in giving them fulfilment. Perhaps, the curse of youth. 




NAPLES. The Hand of God is a film of memories made in Naples. It is also a memory of Naples, the first Italian city to resist Nazi Germany's military occupation and holocaust in World War Two. In 1944, Mount Vesuvius, twelve kilometers away, erupted and the ghosts of Pompeii loomed. But Neapolitans are a resilient people in a regenerated city. Full of secret spots, Naples is a character like any other real person with many layers and emotions to it — a city under the city. What the setting of Naples does for The Hand of God is to add mystery. The city looks beautiful in the day but at night danger lurks in her dark streets and alleys. 

So The Hand of God is a tribute to Naples, as a witness to Fabio's story and to the way filmmaking became his medium of expression. “Everything I know comes from Naples," Sorrentino says, "the art, the emotion, the culture, my world. I can’t tell you what it is objectively because, to me, it is everything. It’s me.” 




DIEGO MARADONA. The Hand of God is set in 1980s Naples when Diego Maradona arrived to play for the city’s football team — S. S. C. Napoli, and carried them to unparalleled success. Unknown to the world's greatest footballer, he also saved Fabio's life. At least that's the way his grandfather, Alfredo, saw it. On Fabio's birthday, his father gave him a season ticket to Napoli's games. He went to watch Maradona while death struck at home. 

The legendary footballer's influence is felt throughout the film. The first half of The Hand of God is filled with excitement when rumors sweep into Naples about the arrival of Maradona. “He’d never leave Barcelona to come to this shithole,” complains one character in disbelief, stunned that the god of football was on his way to their city. The story ends with Maradona helping Napoli become champions of Italy as the city erupts into a blue-and-white soccer festival. 

Though the film is not about Diego Maradona (he died a few days after filming wrapped) or his legendary goal, he features large because Naples features large, and Maradona is everywhere in Naples. On street corners beside portraits of Jesus Christ and the Madonna, there is also Maradona — a sacred figure, still alive in Naples. 




At times, watching The Hand of God in its best sequences, feels like watching Maradona’s second goal in that England game; a mazy, mesmerizing dribble, fluid and surreal, so exciting and humorous that I often held my breath at the imagination and execution of the film. The loss of innocence and virginity, the exuberance of teenage emotion, the nod to Fellini, the appreciation of parents and a Neapolitan football icon, are all splendidly weaved together and shot in Netflix's — È Stata la Mano di Dio. Highly recommended. 


Rating: 8/10