In his new feature film, God’s hand, the Neapolitan filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino mixes autobiographical elements with his passion for the footballer Maradona. A film to watch from Wednesday, December 15 on Netflix.
In July 1984, the Argentinian Diego Maradona arrived in Naples to play for the SCC Napoli club, of which he would quickly become an eternal star. A Neapolitan teenager (Sorrentino), soon broken by the accidental word of his parents, then follows each of the football legend’s exploits.
“Maradona is not just a football player. He was able to transcend reality and he was my first chance to confront myself with art “Paolo Sorrentino, 51, told AFP during the presentation of the film at the Venice Film Festival.
The player is even more than that for Sorrentino. If the future filmmaker did not die of carbon monoxide poisoning with his parents in their vacation home, it is because on the evening of the tragedy he had obtained, at the age of 16 and for the first time, the authorization to stay in Naples for a match in which his idol played.
Today, Paolo Sorrentino is making a film of this tragedy, entrusting the role of his father to his favorite actor, Toni Servillo. The character who is inspired by his childhood is played by a young actor, Filippo Scotti. We discover a young boy growing up in a middle-class family, a large eccentric tribe swimming in fantasy and humor, sometimes corrosive.
His film is also the declaration of love of a Neapolitan for his hometown, magnified on the screen: “Naples, in the 1980s, was like going on a safari, on foot, without being able to take refuge in a jeep. It was fun, very violent and very dangerous, like a jungle. You can meet a lion there, but also beautiful birds“.
The periods following his parents’ death were probably even darker than the film shows, after a poignant scene where he is not granted permission to view their bodies in the hospital. “This is exactly how it happened. I remember it very well and it was not easy to shoot.“, he said. For the rest,”there is a balance between my private life and the needs of the cinema. There are some things that I prefer not to say“.
Why film this story? “There is a future for everyone, no matter how much pain or suffering you have endured in life. I hope the young people can understand this message, because they are much more concerned about their future than we were.“.