Teenager Fabietto yearns to be a film director and he looks at the world through an imaginary lens, spying on his alluring Aunt Patrizia and members of his close-knit family. When Federico Fellini arrives in Naples to make a new film, the locals are swept up in the excitement.
In this seemingly autobiographical rites of passage tale from esteemed Italian film-maker Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty), a teenage boy grows up in bustling 1980s Naples but comes to realise that his future lies elsewhere. For surely, if Diego Maradona can arrive to play for the local football club, anything is possible? Sports fans will already have surmised the title reference, but otherwise little is predictable as Filippo Scotti's reserved, watchful protagonist finds himself exposed to fraying familial bonds, sexual temptation, and the magic of moviemaking. There's a heightened sense of the grotesque, which will remind viewers of celluloid maestro Fellini (represented in a fictional cameo holding auditions), all contributing to a quintessentially Italian representation of life being lived at maximum intensity. It's captivating, haunting, even shocking at times, with a grandiose visualisation of the majestic, crumbling city and its spectacular environs.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Fabietto Schisa | Filippo Scotti |
| Saverio Schisa | Toni Servillo |
| Maria Schisa | Teresa Saponangelo |
| Marchino Schisa | Marlon Joubert |
| Patrizia | Luisa Ranieri |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Paolo Sorrentino |
