The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) brings Paolo Sorrentino back to the Naples of his youth. Released in 2021, this deeply personal film follows a teenager whose world revolves around family, football and the promise of adulthood. Then a sudden loss changes everything.
Sorrentino blends comedy, grief and moments of fantasy. However, the emotional center remains simple: how do you begin to imagine a future when the people who shaped your life are gone?
Viewers familiar with The Great Beauty will recognize his eye for striking images. Here, that visual imagination serves an intimate story about memory and survival.
The Story
Spoiler notice: this section reveals the family tragedy at the heart of the film.
Fabietto Schisa grows up in 1980s Naples, surrounded by relatives who make ordinary gatherings feel like theatrical events. Family affection shares space with arguments, practical jokes and uncomfortable secrets. He watches closely, even when he cannot understand the adults around him.
Meanwhile, Diego Maradona’s arrival at Napoli gives the city a powerful sense of possibility. For Fabietto, football offers excitement and belonging. His devotion to the player also changes the course of his life.
When Fabietto stays behind to watch football, his parents die from carbon monoxide poisoning at their holiday home. The event closely reflects Sorrentino’s own experience as a teenager. Suddenly, the film’s lively family world gives way to absence.
The title connects that survival to Maradona’s famous “Hand of God” goal against England at the 1986 World Cup. Yet the film leaves room for doubt. Was Fabietto protected by destiny, or did an ordinary choice place him beyond the reach of an accident?
Afterward, Fabietto begins to consider filmmaking. Cinema offers a way to give shape to experiences he cannot yet explain.
This shift gives the story its lasting emotional force. Growing up means more than leaving childhood behind. For Fabietto, it also means learning how to carry the people he has lost into an uncertain future.
Cast and Characters
Filippo Scotti plays Fabietto Schisa, the teenager at the center of the story. His performance depends on attention as much as dialogue. A hesitant smile or a sudden silence often reveals what Fabietto cannot put into words.
Toni Servillo plays Saverio Schisa, Fabietto’s father. Familiar to Sorrentino’s audiences, Servillo brings warmth and humor to a character whose flaws complicate his role within the family.
Teresa Saponangelo plays Maria Schisa, Fabietto’s mother. Her energy helps establish the household’s emotional rhythm. She can be playful, hurt and affectionate within the same sequence. Consequently, Maria feels like a person with an inner life, rather than an idealized memory.
Marlon Joubert plays Marchino, Fabietto’s older brother. Their relationship provides another perspective on growing up within the same family. Shared experience does not always produce the same response.
Luisa Ranieri plays Patrizia, Fabietto’s aunt. Although he initially sees her through adolescent desire, her vulnerability complicates that view. Her story also exposes the cruelty that can exist beneath family familiarity. The principal roles appear in the film’s published production credits.
Ciro Capano plays filmmaker Antonio Capuano, a forceful presence in Fabietto’s developing interest in cinema. Capuano challenges him to think about what he wants to say. Their encounter draws on Sorrentino’s long relationship with the real director.
Together, the cast creates a family world that feels affectionate, exhausting and unpredictable. That mixture makes its sudden disruption especially painful.
Awards and Recognition
The Hand of God earned major recognition in Italy and abroad.
At the 2021 Venice Film Festival, it won the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize. Filippo Scotti also received the Marcello Mastroianni Award, which recognizes an emerging actor or actress. These were separate honors for the film and its lead performer.
The film then received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Oscars. It represented Italy among the five nominees. Japan’s Drive My Car won the award.
At the 2022 David di Donatello Awards, the film won five prizes:
- Best Film.
- Best Director for Paolo Sorrentino.
- Best Supporting Actress for Teresa Saponangelo.
- Best Cinematography for Daria D’Antonio.
- The David Giovani award.
These awards recognized several of the film’s strengths: its direction, performances and visual storytelling. Saponangelo’s prize feels particularly meaningful because Maria’s presence anchors the family scenes.
However, viewers do not need an interest in awards to connect with the story. Its appeal rests on familiar experiences: loving imperfect people, misunderstanding them and later wishing there had been more time.
How the Film Was Made
Sorrentino wrote and directed The Hand of God, with Lorenzo Mieli and Sorrentino producing for The Apartment. Daria D’Antonio handled the cinematography, while Cristiano Travaglioli edited the film.
The project required Sorrentino to revisit the loss of his parents. Nevertheless, he shaped that experience through fiction. Fabietto is a character through whom memory, invention and emotional truth can meet. Netflix’s account of the production describes the film as both a family tragedy and the beginning of a filmmaker’s creative life.
In his director’s statement, Sorrentino explained that he wanted a restrained approach to the material. He sought to avoid excessive self-pity and allow remembered life to guide the images and music.
That choice gives the film an accessible emotional rhythm. The camera still finds beauty in Naples, but conversations and small gestures often carry the greatest weight. A family gathering can feel expansive; an empty space can feel devastating.
The film also moves between everyday experience and fantasy. These shifts suggest how memory works. Certain details remain unusually vivid, while others take on the qualities of dreams.
Its release followed both theatrical and streaming routes. The film opened in selected Italian cinemas on November 24, 2021, before its global Netflix release on December 15, 2021.
Why It Still Matters
The Hand of God understands that grief does not arrive in a world emptied of humor. People still tell jokes. Relatives still behave badly. Beautiful afternoons continue, even when someone’s private life has changed beyond recognition.
This mixture gives the film much of its honesty. The early comedy also serves an emotional purpose. We spend enough time inside Fabietto’s family to understand what he loses.
Naples shapes that experience at every level. Football, family gatherings, the sea and the city’s theatrical energy influence how Fabietto sees the world. Through his eyes, a particular place becomes part of a developing imagination.
The film also invites a thoughtful look at perspective. Fabietto does not fully understand the women around him. His attraction, curiosity and confusion influence what he notices. Viewers can recognize those limits while paying attention to the women’s suffering and agency.
Some scenes involving sexuality and unequal power may leave audiences uneasy. That discomfort deserves consideration alongside the film’s tenderness.
Above all, the story asks what someone can do with painful memories. Art cannot restore Fabietto’s parents. It can, however, offer a language for experiences that otherwise feel impossible to communicate.
For another view of Sorrentino’s relationship with Naples, read our guide to Parthenope. The two films offer different perspectives on youth, beauty and the city’s hold on its people.
Where to Watch or Buy
Availability checked on October 5, 2026. Catalogs and editions may change.
Subscription streaming
In the United States, The Hand of God is listed on Netflix, including Netflix Standard with Ads. Visit the Netflix film page to check access through your account.
In Italy, the film is listed on Netflix under its original title, È stata la mano di Dio. Visit the Italian Netflix page for viewing and language options.
Digital rental and purchase
The U.S. and Italian listings checked did not show a separate digital rental or purchase option. Netflix access is a subscription service; it does not provide permanent ownership of the film.
DVD and Blu-ray
An official retail DVD or Blu-ray edition could not be verified for either market. The following links are Amazon searches, not confirmed physical editions:
- Search Amazon.com for The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino.
- Search Amazon.it for È stata la mano di Dio.
Before ordering a listing, check the distributor, format, region compatibility and subtitle details.
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, Italia Mia earns from qualifying purchases.
External Sources
- Netflix: The Hand of God
- La Biennale: film credits and director’s statement
- La Biennale: official Venice 2021 awards
- The Academy: 2022 Oscar nominees and winners
- ANSA: David di Donatello 2022 awards
- BFI: film background and production credits
- JustWatch: U.S. availability
- JustWatch: Italian availability
