Direction: Paolo Sorrentino
Country: Italy
The Italian director Paolo Sorrentino - who gave us reasons to smile with phenomenal dramas such as Il Divo (2008) and The Great Beauty (2013) - weighs on his alienating teenage years in Naples. The Hand of God is an intimate, often disconcerting coming-of-age film, which not being a massive hit like the previously mentioned titles, is well capable to achieve cinematic cult with its profound sense of nostalgia.
Boasting some grandiose shots and sharpening them through the remarkable cinematography of Daria D'Antonio, the film is a tribute from Sorrentino to a younger self; one whose only certainty was to become a filmmaker. It’s also a hymn of praise and madness to his hometown, whose inhabitants went berserk when the Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona arrived in the 1980s to play in the local club. As the course of the story documents, life has much more than just soccer, and the protagonist - the young Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) - expresses that feeling in the face of tragedy and uncertainty.
On one hand, there's a certain tangible quality in the way that Sorrentino molds his extravagant characters, but one also finds some explorative awkwardness in many scenes that feel very Fellini-esque. The result, despite the ups and downs, is touching. Wonderfully bittersweet.
Combining fantasy and reality, tears and laughter, sports and arts, as well as the vulgar and the sensitive aspects of life, The Hand of God might not be a masterpiece but is certainly one of a kind.
