In 1986, the legendary Argentinian football star Diego Maradona claimed that his winning goal against England in the World Cup Quarter Finals was achieved “a little with [his] head, and a little with the hand of God”.
A bold claim, but that’s probably how the moment felt to soccer fans across the world, too: a controversial goal by the use of Maradona’s fist that would’ve scored a yellow card today thanks to video referee technology, instead became a sporting miracle.
Paolo Sorrentino’s upcoming drama The Hand of God borrows that incident for its title, and the film’s 80s setting is no coincidence. Set to premiere on Netflix this December 15, The Hand of God is a poignant, semi-autobiographical story that’s highly personal to Sorrentino, involving Diego Maradona in a serendipitous series of events that would change the director’s life forever.
The Hand of God has been selected to compete at this year’s Venice Film Festival, an ideal spot for director and writer Sorrentino’s transcendent filmmaking. The trailer below introduces us to protagonist Fabietto (Filippo Scotti), a young dreamer looking for liberation through art and sport.
“Reality is lousy”, he whinges, transfixed instead by a cinema screen—it’s no stretch to imagine that Fabietto is a surrogate for all of Sorrentino’s own adolescent yearning and escapism.
While the trailer is more lyrical than practical, not really giving us much to go off in terms of story and characters, Netflix has revealed that the plot is upended “by a shocking accident from which Maradona inadvertently saves Fabietto, setting his future in motion.”
Sounds abstract, but details from the auteur’s own life may reveal the precise sadness we should expect on December 15. If you don’t want to know the tragic plot of The Hand of God until it’s available on Netflix, look away now—it could very well skew close to events in Sorrentino’s own heartbreaking youth, as he described in a Variety interview below.
