translated from Spanish: Paolo Sorrentino to film “The Hand of God”, inspired by Maradona

The celebrated Italian film director Paolo Sorrentino, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film for “The Great Beauty”, announced that he is returning to his hometown, Naples, to film the film “Stata la mano di Dio” (It was the hand of God). Although that is the name by which one of the most famous goals in football history is known – scored by Diego Maradona against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico and which ended up winning Argentina – Sorrentino argues that for him the meaning is another; a unique, very personal one. “I am very excited about the idea of re-shooting in Naples, 20 years from my first film. For the first time I’m going to tell an intimate and personal story, an initiation novel that will be joyful and painful at the same time,” he announced.

Although the details of the film’s plot are not yet known—perhaps from Netflix’s rigorous contract—some Hollywood sites and Italian media have already advanced that the film will not have a narrative axis directly related to football or an explicit reference to the famous goal. Instead, it is believed that it will develop around the time of the 1980s, when the director grew up in the Italian city and Diego was playing for Napoli, as well as a family tragedy that marked the director and in which, he said repeatedly, Maradona saved his life.” We were always going on vacation to that mountain spot and at the time I was 16. I am a Napoli fan from the cradle, I insisted a lot on wanting to go to the court and that weekend my father gave me the authorization,” Sorrentino said in the program hosted by Raffaella Carrá at RAI.” Passion saves us, but it can also kill us. My father, for example, was passionate about skiing. They gave me permission, they left and when the game day came and the bell rang I thought I was the friend I had arranged to go to the court with. Instead they came to give me the most terrible news. It’s one of those pains that marks you for life.” 

Original source in Spanish

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