(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.