I just finished watching The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio), the new movie directed by Paolo Sorrentino and produced by Netflix. The movie is the biographical coming-of-age story of the director himself who reflects on his teenage years in the south of Italy. The action takes place in Naples in the '80s and the protagonist is the young Fabietto, third son of a middle class family. 

The title refers to the famous goal scored with his hand by Diego Armando Maradona in the match against England in 1986. The arrival of Maradona in Naples is central for the whole story: the director portrayed the love of the city for the football player and how he became a symbol of redemption for the entire city.

As I said, not only is The Hand of God a way for the director to talk about his youth and the loss of his parents, but it is also a love song for Naples and its complexity. The city and its people can not be described with words; their anthropological and cultural complexity can only be portrayed through images and symbols.

It is also important to point out that such intimate and artistic movie was partly produced and distributed by a platform such as Netflix. We know Netflix as a source of popular tv series and big hit movies. However, it is interesting to notice how the platform is slowly entering a different type of market producing auteur-style movies. Is this part of the platform market strategy? What can we expect from Netflix in the next 5 years? Such a bold move could be the beginning of Netflix' lead of the movie industry and could perhaps represent a real threat to the small and independent production companies specialised independent movies.