The Hand of God

The Hand of God (2021) is Paolo Sorrentino telling his own adolescence, and it does not look like his other films. A boy called Fabietto lives inside a crowded family in 1980s Naples. The first half is close to comedy; the second half begins after a disaster. What actually happened: Sorrentino's mother and father died of carbon monoxide poisoning at the family house. He was sixteen and was not with them, because he had gone to watch Maradona, who had just signed for Napoli. Sorrentino has said the same thing for years, that Maradona saved his life. The title refers to Maradona's handball goal in 1986. Sorrentino has described gathering the memories over many years and then writing the screenplay in two weeks. Filming began in Naples in September 2020. Filippo Scotti plays Fabietto, alongside Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo and Luisa Ranieri. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice, Scotti took the Marcello Mastroianni Award, and the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. It runs 130 minutes. Good for: autobiography, Naples, and anyone curious about what football can mean to a city. Less good for: the tone in the first half is scattered and some family scenes tip into broad comedy. Most of the women are drawn through a teenage boy's gaze, and the film never questions that gaze.