An example of great cinema: it is not only one of the most important films of the week, but of the entire season, “It was the hand of God”, a new, very important feature film by Paolo Sorrentino.
For the Neapolitan director this film is a real homecoming: not only for the setting in his hometown, but because much of the narrative is directly inspired by his life and memories, albeit filtered through the lens. of the imagination, then combined with stories that have been invented or that have been told to him by other people.
We are in the eighties and the young Fabietto is looking for his own place in the world. Two events are ready to upset his entire life: the first is the arrival in Naples of Maradona, the second a personal tragedy that will make him grow ahead of time. It is at least curious that, if we count the previous “They” as a double film (exactly as it was released in theaters), “It was the hand of God” is the tenth feature film signed by Sorrentino and perhaps the number is not a coincidence, given that from the title there is an explicit reference to Diego Armando Maradona.
A powerful coming-of-age tale
It is a real coming-of-age story “It was the hand of God”, a title with a double meaning that refers both to the goal scored with the hand by Maradona at the 1986 World Cup, and to the fact that Fabietto (and Sorrentino himself) is saved thanks to a Napoli match. The director’s parents died in their sleep asphyxiated by carbon monoxide while they were on vacation in Roccaraso: the son was supposed to be with them, but that time he hadn’t followed them because his father had allowed him to go and see his favorite team in transfer to the stadium.
Sorrentino goes to sublimate this and other intimate experiences in a feature film shot with enviable technical mastery: the first, beautiful sequence is enough to transport us immediately into the story, thanks to a movement of the camera that takes us from the sea to Naples (the city where the director he hadn’t made films for twenty years, since his debut with “The One Man”).
Alternating really funny moments (the lunches of the protagonist’s colorful family, first of all) with dramatic and moving sequences (the last meeting with his aunt, for example), “It was the hand of God” is a swirl of incisive, capable emotions to remain impressed for a very long time at the end of the vision.