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Massimiliano Gallo as lawyer Vincenzo Malconico, in the Italian comedy series “Vincenzo Malconico: Italian Lawyer.” Courtesy of MHzChoice

I’ve reviewed a lot of European TV series when they start streaming on our side of the Atlantic in the last several years. Among the light-hearted ones, France’s “Captain Marleau” and “Sharif” have been my favorites. Italy has also come up with some amusing forays into the genre. “Vincenzo Malconico: Italian Lawyer” is the most farcical of them all, as the eponymous attorney (Massimiliano Gallo) is a flustered guy with a marginal practice, besieged by hassles from all directions – family, friends, neighbors and clients –and usually more than one at a time. It’s eight episodes of fast-paced mayhem, so one needs to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it. Murders occur, but the emphasis is far more on character comedy than the whodunnit component.

Much about Vincenzo’s appearance screams loser,...

Malaga — Opening last Friday with “Dragonkeeper,” also in competition, Spain’s Malaga Festival, its biggest dedicated event for movies from Spain and Latin America, is studded by latest films by Isaki Lacuesta – “Saturn Return,” reportedly fun, broad audience and radical – David Trueba – “The Good Man,” small scale but almost certainly ingratiating – and Antonio Chavarrías’ “Holy Mother,” about an extraordinary real life female figure in Spain’s 9th century Reconquista.

Also in the running is “Rest in Peace,” from notable Argentine writer-director Sebastián Borensztein (“Chinese Takeaway”).

All are front-runners for some kind of award next Saturday. Prominent also is a bevy of first or second features, featuring from Spain three titles from women directors – gender abuse drama “The Snows,” “Nina,” reportedly a Western set in a northern Spanish town, and tragi-comedy “We Treat Women Too Well” – plus a clutch of debuts from Latin America.

This year’s Competition may, in the final analysis,...

Exclusive: Filmax has acquired international rights to the European road movie Birds Flying East, starring Teresa Saponangelo (The Hand of God), Luis Zahera (The Beasts) and Javier Gutierrez (The Motive).

The Spanish-based Filmax will present first-look images from the pic this week at the Cannes Market.

Directed by actor and filmmaker Pau Durà (Formentera Lady), the pic is produced by David Ciurana of Fosca Films (Formentera Lady), José Nolla of Icónica Producciones (The Motive), and Cristina Zumárraga of Tandem Films (Rosa’s Wedding) for Birds Film and Aie, in co-production with Romanian producers MPM Motion Pictures Management. The project has also received support from Icaa Rtve, Prime Video and TV3.

Related: Cannes Film Festival Full Coverage

Billed as a comedy-drama, the pic tells the story of the trans-European road trip embarked on by two men who travel from Valencia, Spain, to the delta of the Danube in Romania in search of times passed.

The Hand Of God won four prizes including best film, best director and best supporting actress.

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God won four prizes at the 67th David di Donatello awards, including best film (the first Netflix title to do so), best director and best supporting actress for Teresa Saponangelo.

The Oscar-nominated coming-of-age drama also shared the cinematography prize with Gabriele Mainetti’s Venice competition title Freaks Out, which won six awards in total, including prizes for the producers, production design, hairdressing, make-up and VFX.

The two films both had the highest number of nominations with 16.

The in-person...

The David di Donatello Awards were held in Rome on Tuesday evening, the first time Italy’s equivalent to the Oscar has had a fully in-person ceremony in the pandemic era. Taking top honors was Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God which scooped Best Film and Director as well as Best Supporting Actress for Teresa Saponangelo and a tie for Best Cinematography. In the latter category, The Hand Of God shared the win with Freaks Out, a fantasy drama that likewise debuted in Venice.

Sorrentino’s autobiographical drama launched on the Lido last September where it won the Grand Jury Prize. A Netflix title, it went on to myriad festival and critics prizes and was also nominated for an Oscar as Best International Feature.

Freaks Out, directed by Gabriele Mainetti, also picked up prizes for Producer, Production Design, Hair and Makeup. Other titles to figure in the David di...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated autobiographical drama “The Hand of God” took top honors at Italy’s 67th David di Donatello Awards, winning best picture, director, supporting actress and tying for the best cinematography statuette.

Sorrentino’s Naples-set film about the personal tragedy and other vicissitudes that drove him to become a top notch film director had been the frontrunner along with young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the elegant effects-laden historical fantasy “Freaks Out.”

“Freaks Out” won six prizes, including for its producer, Andrea Occhipinti, as well as cinematographer, set design, and effects.

The cinematography prize, which was a tie, was split between “Hand of God” Dp Daria D’Antonio, marking the first time this David goes to a woman, and Michele Attanasio for “Freaks Out.”

The Davids were held as a fully in-person ceremony at Rome’s Cinecittà studios just as the famed facilities undergo a radical renewal being...

Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each.

Here’s the complete list of nominees:

Picture

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore

“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone

Director

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore

“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone

Debut Director

“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice

“Maternal,” Maura Delpero

“Small Body,” Laura Samani

“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis

“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile

Producer

“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...

The latest batch of Italian TV series for the international market is a mix of genres spanning from a new Elena Ferrante adaptation made for Netflix, to two Rai reconstructions of the country’s terrorism-plagued past and Sky’s spaghetti Western “Django.”

Django

This English-language reimagining of the world of “Django,” the cult 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Western that launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is a Sky Studios and Canal Plus original. The show’s cast includes Noomi Rapace, Nicholas Pinnock and Matthias Schoenaerts. Director Francesca Comencini has called it “a universal story with a narrative that celebrates diversity and minorities.”

Esterno Notte

Marco Bellocchi is in post on this limited TV series from Rai Fiction about the 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists. The veteran helmer previously recounted Moro’s still-mysterious abduction from the viewpoint of one of his...

Italy’s Stand By Me and Rai have partnered on “The General’s Men,” a high-end drama that delves into the country’s battle against Red Brigades terrorism by portraying a special paramilitary unit set up by a high-ranking police official played by Sergio Castellitto.

Castellitto (first look image above) plays General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, the heroic chief of the Carabinieri paramilitary police force who in 1974 set up the Nucleo Speciale Antiterrorismo, a unit of elite young officers, to fight Red Brigades terrorists who were running rampage. In 1978 the Red Brigades abducted and killed then Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.

“They are all young [both the terrorists and the elite police officers] and they represent two distinct groups who have decided to be on different sides of history,” said Stand By Me chief Simona Ercolani.

“The show’s underlying theme is the defense of democracy, which is very timely,” she added.

The eight-episode show directed by Lucio Pellegrini...

Giancarlo Giannini, who was the late great Lina Wertmüller’s muse, helmer Gabriele Muccino (“The Pursuit of Happyness”), and Teresa Saponangelo, star of Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” are among top honorees of the seventh edition of Filming Italy — Los Angeles, the bridge between Italy and Hollywood set to run as a hybrid event Feb. 28-March 3.

The celebration of Italy’s top film and TV titles is headed by longtime Italian industry promoter Tiziana Rocca, a former chief of the Taormina Film Festival. She proudly points out that its physical screenings, starting on March 1 in L.A.’s Harmony Gold Theater, are among the first inperson events in Los Angeles as ceremonies open up in the city.

Thanks to Rocca’s dogged determination Giannini, who starred in nine Wertmüller films, starting with sex comedy and social satire “The Seduction of Mimi,” is to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Late great Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, who is best known to U.S. audiences as the star of classics such as “Big Deal on Madonna Street” and “Il Sorpasso” (“The Easy Life”), will be celebrated by the Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival, which will run March 20-26 at Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theater.

The annual pre-Oscars event comprising movies and music and celebrating showbiz ties between Italy and Hollywood, now at its 17th edition, will pay tribute to the centennial of Gassman’s birth with a mini-retro honoring the memory of the iconic thesp who, among other accolades, won the best actor prize at Cannes in 1975 for his performance as a blind man in Dino Risi’s ”Profumo di Donna,” later remade in English as ”Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino.

“We are honored and extremely pleased to pay a well-deserved tribute to an Italian genius whose...

The Hand of God Review — The Hand of God (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betty Pedrazzi, Lino Musella, Monica Nappo, Biagio Manna and Carmen Pommella. Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s new film, The Hand of [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: The Hand Of God (2021): Interesting Coming of Age Drama is Bold, Provocative and, At Times, a Bit Odd...

The Hand of God Netflix Reviewed for Shockya.com by Abe Friedtanzer Director: Paolo Sorrentino Writer: Paolo Sorrentino Cast: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betti Pedrazzi, Biagio Manna, Ciro Capano, Enzo Decaro, Lino Musella, Sofya Gershevich Screened at: Netflix, LA, 12/15/21 Opened: December 15th, 2021 Teenagers are […]

The post The Hand of God Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Days (Tsai Ming-liang)

Not a huge amount takes place at the beginning of Days. The opening exchanges are elemental: wind blows; rain patters; grass shivers; a boy in pink shorts plays with fire. But then not a huge amount happens after. The movie is the latest from director Tsai Ming-liang, a Malaysia-born filmmaker and master of slow burns; and a key figure in the second wave of Taiwanese New Cinema. What Tsai does do–and better than most–is long takes; beautiful compositions; urban bustle; gorgeous color; neon light–as well as capture touch, sexuality and the human body. – Rory O. (full review)

Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days) (note: Tsai’s Afternoon is also streaming)

Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)

There is an uncomfortable,...

Director Paolo Sorrentino’s gorgeous new film, The Hand of God (“È stata la mano di Dio“), is an interesting piece of work in that it is a deeply emotional and autobiographical piece that unfortunately strays a little too much in its middle section before finding its way again in the final act.

The film follows a teenage boy named Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) in 1980s Naples. There, Fabietto lives with his parents Saverio and Maria (Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo), brother, and sister (who spends a considerable portion of the film in the bathroom). The family is introduced via a much larger gathering including the extended family before switching over to the more intimate setting of the immediate Schisa family. Essentially a coming-of-age tale – albeit with an unfortunate intrusion of fate deciding how soon young Fabietto does, in fact, come of age – the film runs through a myriad of...

(l-r) Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo, in The Hand Of God by Paolo Sorrentino. Photo by Gianni Fiorito. Courtesy of Netflix.

Memory can be a powerful thing. The vivid autobiographical tale from Oscar-winning writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, The Hand Of God is a coming-of-age tale about an awkward teenage boy growing up in 1980s Naples, a sun-splashed, gritty, quirky place where he is surrounded by loving family and colorful characters, a place where the mundane and the magical exist side-by-side. Soccer and cinema are his obsessions but fate or luck – the hand of God – steps in and shapes the direction of his life.

Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) lives with his parents Saverio Schisa (Toni Servillo) and Maria Schisa (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother Marchino Schisa (Marlon Joubert) and a sister we never see because she is always in the bathroom, sharing an apartment near the the port city’s old harbor.

In his new, semi-autobiographical film The Hand of God, the Italian auteur reflects on a tragedy that still haunts him

Warning: spoiler alert…

In his 20-year career Paolo Sorrentino has orchestrated scenes of indelible virtuosity and grandeur: the pageantry of the pope in the Vatican, poolside orgies where ecstasy pills rain from the sky, a giraffe among Roman ruins, Michael Caine conducting a field of cows. But in his latest, The Hand of God, Sorrentino stages a scene arguably more challenging than any of them, and one that few film-makers could ever contemplate: a reenactment of his own parents’ deaths.

Initially it appears to be a picture of domestic contentment. Sorrentino’s fictionalised parents (played by Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo) are enjoying an evening on the sofa by the fire in their new holiday home, outside Naples. They start to feel tired and peacefully doze off in each other’s arms.

The Italian film-maker may owe his life to the footballer, as this vivid, autobiographical Neapolitan drama reveals

Paolo Sorrentino’s extravagantly personal movie gives us all a sentimental education in this director’s boyhood and coming of age – or at any rate, what he now creatively remembers of it – in Naples in the 1980s, where everyone had gone collectively crazy for Ssc Napoli’s new signing, footballing legend Diego Maradona. We watch as a family party explodes with joy around the TV when Maradona scores his handball goal in the 1986 World Cup. A leftwing uncle growls with pleasure at the imperialist English getting scammed.

This is a tribute to Sorrentino’s late parents, who in 1987 died together of carbon monoxide poisoning at their holiday chalet outside the city, where 16-year-old Paolo might himself also have been staying had it not been that he wanted to see Napoli playing at home.

Netflix has debuted a new trailer for the upcoming feature from Paolo Sorrentino ‘The Hand of God.’

From Academy Award-winning writer and director Paolo Sorrentino comes the story of a boy, Fabietto Schisa, set in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s.

The Hand of God is a story full of unexpected joys, such as the arrival of football legend Diego Maradona, and an equally unexpected tragedy. Fate plays its part, joy and tragedy intertwine, and Fabietto’s future is set in motion. Sorrentino returns to his hometown to tell his most personal story, a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss.

Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, the film stars Toni Servillo, Filippo Scotti, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri.

Also in trailers – “I’m Lucille Ball…” Full trailer drops for ‘Being the Ricardos’

The feature will be released in select cinemas in December and on...

"I don't like reality anymore. Reality is lousy." Netflix has debuted the full official trailer for The Hand of God, the latest film made by acclaimed Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. This premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize Silver Lion and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor. Sorrentino is telling his own story of growing up in Naples, as his desire to be a filmmaker grows. He shot this in Naples last year and it looks absolutely magical, showing the true power of cinema. The story of a boy in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s. Sorrentino's most personal film yet is a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss. Starring Filippo Scotti, with Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, and Massimiliano Gallo. While I didn't end up loving this film ...

Deadline’s movie awards-season showcase The Contenders returned in-person this past weekend with Contenders Film: London, an all-day event that put 19 of the year’s buzziest movies from nine studios in the spotlight. A total of 44 panelists from George Clooney and Jennifer Hudson to Denis Villenueve, Dakota Johnson and Jonathan Majors participated.

Click here to go to the Contenders London streaming site.

Altitude, Amazon Studios, Apple Original Films, Focus Features, MGM, Neon, Netflix, Universal and Warner Bros/Legendary were the studios who took part in the hybrid event at the Ham Yard Hotel, bringing with them stars and creatives from films including Clooney and Grant Heslov for The Tender Bar, Hudson for Respect, Villeneuve and star Rebecca Ferguson for Dune, and Johnson and Jessie Buckley for The Lost Daughter.

Other attendees included Titane‘s Julia Ducournau; Encounter‘s Riz Ahmed and writer-director Michael Pearce; A Hero‘s Ashgar Farhadi; Coda...

Deadline Contenders Film: London, our annual awards-season kickoff that is gearing up for its hybrid in-person/virtual edition this weekend, has finalized its lineup of panelists for this year’s showcase, which will put the spotlight on 19 of the year’s buzziest films and their filmmakers, actors and below-the-line talent for BAFTA, AMPAS and guild voters.

The list of participants for the all-day event Saturday, October 9 at the Ham Yard Hotel, which kicks off at 8 a.m. London time (a virtual edition begins at 9:30 a.m.), features a who’s who of actors and creators behind this year’s top films from nine participating studios and streamers.

Among the 44 confirmed attendees will be The Tender Bar‘s George Clooney and Grant Heslov; Respect‘s Jennifer Hudson; Dune‘s Denis Villeneuve and star Rebecca Ferguson; Palme d’Or winner Titane‘s Julia Ducournau; Encounter‘s Riz Ahmed; A Hero‘s...

Contemporary filmmakers clearly have an enormous bee in their bonnet for the coming-of-age film and poetic youth memoir—even Steven Spielberg is currently getting in on the action with his cutely named The Fabelmans, reminiscing on his Eisenhower-era boyhood in Arizona. There are a handful of potential explanations for this: the adjacent popularity of autofiction (that modish literary form initially popularised in France) has found authors—from Norway’s Knausgaard to Ferrante in Naples—deep-mining their own backstories, reinventing what we know to be realism. So there’s something in the air. Can it also be the self-publicising spree of social media platforms? For this writer’s money, climate anxiety seems relevant: the urge to preserve, to scan past memories before a great erasure. Even James Gray, often impervious to fashion, is setting up Armageddon Time, about his upbringing in ‘80s Queens.

This is all eternally relevant for Paolo Sorrentino’s new film,...

The Hand of God In April 1987, Paolo Sorrentino’s parents left Naples for a weekend gateway in Roccaraso, Abruzzo. The future Oscar winner was meant to come along, but turned down the invite on account of a far juicier plan: a die-hard Napoli fan, his football team was to play an away match against Empoli, which meant a chance for the lad to see his hero, Greatest Player ff All Time Diego Armando Maradona, dispense his genius on the pitch. As it turned out, Sorrentino’s parents never made it back—they died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater, and the boy was left an orphan. He was only sixteen. “It was Maradona,” a relative exclaims in the director’s latest and most personal project to date, The Hand of God: “He saved you!” A portrait of the filmmaker as an adolescent, the film traces a sentimental...

Fabietto (Filippo Scotti), the autobiographical hero of Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” is a teenager growing up in the 1980s in the bustling port metropolis of Naples, and he keeps a watchful gaze on just about everything. He’s like the eye at the center of a storm of avidly impassioned but overstated filmmaking. Filippo Scotti, the actor who plays him, is handsome in a pale way, with curly hair and a presence that’s elegant in its quietude. There’s something Chalamet-esque about him; at the same time, you could imagine him playing the young Bob Dylan. The year is 1984, and Fabietto is a kid who knows how to fit in but still sets himself apart. He wears a small hoop earring (not so common back then), and he’s got a Walkman whose earphones are always draped around his neck. In the cracked asphalt field at school,...

Fall festival season officially launches this week, and the programmers at the Telluride Film Festival are ready to make up for time lost last year amid the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, just a day before the Telluride Film Festival officially kicks off for 2021, organizers announced an enormous lineup of 80 features, including the premieres of multiple buzzy awards contenders like Will Smith in “King Richard,” Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical drama “Belfast,” Joe Wright’s “Cyrano,” and Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” (which will also screen during this year’s Venice Film Festival).

“I do think we’ve got the best movies of the year,” Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger told Indiewire in an interview. Unlike last year’s Telluride Film Festival, which was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic (although Telluride did announce its lineup and host a drive-in screening of “Nomadland” in Los...

As usual, Telluride Film Festival has unveiled their 2021 lineup just moments before the event gets underway. Taking place from Thursday, September 2 through Monday, September 6, 2021, the lineup features Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, as well as Cannes highlights Bergman Island and Red Rocket, and more.

See the lineup below.

The Automat (d. Lisa Hurwitz, U.S., 2021) In person: Lisa Hurwitz

Becoming Cousteau (d. Liz Garbus, U.S., 2021) In person: Liz Garbus

Belfast (d. Kenneth Branagh, U.K., 2021) In person: Kenneth Branagh, Jamie Dornan

Bergman Island (d. Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany/Sweden, 2021) In person: Mia Hansen-Løve

Bitterbrush (d. Emelie Mahdavian, U.S., 2021) In person: Emelie Mahdavian, Colie Moline

C’Mon C’Mon (d. Mike Mills, U.S., 2021) In person: Mike Mills,...

Mike Mills’ Joaquin Phoenix drama “C’mon C’mon,” Joe Wright’s adaptation of the Broadway musical “Cyrano” and Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith in the story of the tennis-titan Williams sisters and their father, Richard, are among the films that will play at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival, Telluride organizers announced on Wednesday.

The annual Colorado festival, which was canceled last year because of the Covid pandemic, has been expanded by one day this year, beginning on Thursday instead of Friday. As usual, it did not announce its relatively small and carefully curated lineup until the day before the festival begins.

Among the films that will join “C’mon C’mon,” “Cyrano” and “King Richard” as Telluride world premieres are a number of documentaries, including Liz Garbus’ “Becoming Cousteau,” E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “The Rescue,” John Hoffman and Janet Tobias’ “Fauci” and Julie Cohen & Betsy West’s “Julia.

Netflix has debuted a teaser trailer for the upcoming feature from Paolo Sorrentino ‘The Hand of God.’

From Academy Award-winning writer and director Paolo Sorrentino comes the story of a boy, Fabietto Schisa, set in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s.

The Hand of God is a story full of unexpected joys, such as the arrival of football legend Diego Maradona, and an equally unexpected tragedy. Fate plays its part, joy and tragedy intertwine, and Fabietto’s future is set in motion. Sorrentino returns to his hometown to tell his most personal story, a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss.

Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, the film stars Toni Servillo, Filippo Scotti, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri.

Also in trailers – Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac star in full trailer for ‘Scenes from a Marriage’

The feature will be released in select cinemas in...

Netflix has unveiled the first look at Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God.”

The film, which will have its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 2, tells the story of Fabietto Schisa, an awkward Italian teen whose life and vibrant, eccentric family are suddenly upended — namely by the electrifying arrival of soccer legend Diego Maradona, who inadvertently saves Fabietto, setting his future in motion.

The story is a deeply personal one to “The Great Beauty” director Sorrentino. Speaking with Variety in 2015, he revealed, “Aside from all the things I’ve said before about Maradona, he involuntarily saved my life. I lost my parents when I was 16 in an accident with the heating system in a house in the mountains where I always used to go to with them. That weekend, I didn’t go because I wanted to go watch Maradona and S.S.C...

Netflix has dropped the teaser trailer and art for Paolo Sorrentino’s upcoming The Hand Of God. The latest from the maker of Oscar winner The Great Beauty will world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival on September 2. It then releases in select cinemas in Italy on November 24, followed by the rest of the world on December 3 and on Netflix on December 15. Check out the powerful teaser above and the new poster below.

For the film, Sorrentino returned to his hometown to shoot what is billed as his most personal story yet, that of a young man’s heartbreak and liberation in 1980s Naples. The Hand Of God centers on Fabietto Schisa (newcomer Filippo Scotti), an awkward Italian teen whose life and vibrant, eccentric family are suddenly upended — first by the electrifying arrival of soccer legend Diego Maradona, and then by a shocking accident from which Maradona inadvertently saves Fabietto,...