Oscar-nominated The Hand of God is a beautiful, personal film from Paolo Sorrentino heavily based upon the filmmaker’s real-life events that caused him to pursue his artistic career. In typical Sorrentino fashion, some of what carries out is fantastical and dream-like, stirring a bit of mystery into the mix of the film’s narrative. This can be found most predominantly towards the ending, where young Fabietto’s (Filippo Scotti) strange experience on a train leads to a profound realization for the future filmmaker.
Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Hand of God.
Before that, though, it’s important to look at what pushes Fabietto to leave in the first place. After he loses both of his parents (Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo) in a tragic accident, the young man finds himself facing uncertainty in which direction to go in life. While he initially expresses the desire to study philosophy, he later pivots to suggest he’d like to become a filmmaker, even though he’s only ever seen a handful of them — which makes sense, considering the utter awe with which the movies strike him. After approaching real-life director Antiono Capuano (Ciro Capano) for advice, Fabietto finds that he may have something to express through film.
It’s clear that the untimely death of both his parents is traumatic enough an experience, but it’s made all the more brutal by the doctor’s insistence that Fabietto shouldn’t be allowed to see their bodies due to the fact that they’d be entirely unrecognizable. From there, the people most important in Fabietto’s life drift further and further away from him. His close friend Armando (Biagio Manna) gets a lengthy prison sentence, his brother (Marlon Joubert) becomes increasingly distant, and his beloved Aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri) is committed to a psychiatric care facility.
With Fabietto left alone, he expresses a desire to move to Rome to pursue his interest in filmmaking. However, Capuano suggests that he stay in Napoli so that they can work on films together. It’s clearly an intriguing offer, yet in the film’s final scene we see him ultimately boarding a train for an unknown destination, presumably Rome. By now, Fabietto has gained enough confidence to trust himself and act according to his own desires. His decision to ignore Capuano's advice and leave for Rome shows the young man fully becoming his own person making his own decisions. He leaves behind his brother and his imprisoned friend to pursue the life for himself that he wants. Fabietto understands that he has things to say, and he wants to express himself through cinema (a medium he is unfamiliar with but repeatedly transfixed by).
Back to the final scene. The Napoli soccer team, with the help of Diego Maradona, wins the Italian championship, to much enthusiasm of practically everybody that Fabietto knows, yet he departs from home melancholically. What was once one of his greatest desires now feels insignificant in the wake of his tremendous loss. It was, after all, due to the fact that Fabietto was at a game to watch Maradona play that he wasn’t killed in the same carbon monoxide accident as his parents. In this sense, the team’s victory warrants an entirely different reaction from Fabietto. It’s a bitter reminder of his parents' death, but a joyous reminder that he’s still alive.
So Fabietto leaves home. When his train departs the station, we hear a whistle identical to the one performed repeatedly by his father throughout the film. Fabietto’s attention is piqued, hopefully. The Little Monk, who mysteriously appears to Aunt Patrizia earlier in the film, shows up once again on the train platform. Fabietto finds significant peace in the appearance of this figure, and the film ends with Fabietto falling asleep peacefully on the train.
First, let’s consider the whistling. While he hadn’t a chance to say goodbye to his parents due to the condition of their bodies, hearing the whistle one last time is an opportunity for Fabietto to bid farewell. It’s a sign to Fabietto that, even if his parents are dead, he is never truly alone. The intentional placement of his father’s jovial whistling at several points throughout the film is a brilliant way for Sorrentino to achieve this emotional release. Through a simple tonal motif, Fabietto’s love of his parents — and his ability to move on — is conveyed.
Then, there’s the Little Monk, definitely the film’s most surreal moment. The Little Monk, a recurring figure in Napoli folklore, serves as a symbol of hope and perseverance in the film. In traditional folklore, the Monk, known as “Monaciello”, is an enigmatic, cloaked figure known to appear benevolently to those in need to award them with treasure. In an opening scene that feels straight out of a Federico Fellini flick, a distraught Aunt Patrizia is pulled off the street by a Saint (Enzo De Caro), who takes her to visit the Little Monk to cure her infertility. According to Patrizia, it works.
For Fabietto, The Little Monk serves two separate purposes. For one, he serves as a connection between Fabietto and his aunt. He’s the only one who voices belief that she had actually seen the Monk, with everybody else ridiculing her and dismissing her visit as a hallucination. By seeing the Monk himself, Fabietto is made to realize the importance of his support of his aunt.
The Monk also serves to reassure Fabietto that his departure is well-advised. He sees the figure standing at the train station, saluting him amiably. While the treasure given by Little Monk is traditionally of tangible value, in The Hand of God, the gift is much more invaluable. For Patrizia, it was the hope of becoming fertile and becoming pregnant. For Fabietto, it was an opportunity to connect to his fragile aunt and an opportunity to find comfort and relief in his risky decision to leave home.
Ultimately, the ending makes an insightful statement about overcoming tragedy and finding one's own place in the world. Fabietto is able to let go of his grief — while never forgetting his parents — in able to set a course for himself. Not even his idol Capuano could direct him to follow anybody but himself. Fabietto’s past will always be a significant part of him, but his future is unwritten. He can become anything he wants to be, and only he is able to make that decision.
The Hand of God is now streaming on Netflix.
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