★★★★
Constructed from over 500 hours of never-before-seen footage, this documentary centers on the career of celebrated football player Diego Armando Maradona, who played for S.S.C. Napoli in the 1980s.
Classification: 12A
Asif Kapadia's latest documentary continues the filmmaker's tradition of immersive and
evocative film with this in-depth look at the rise and fall on this football legend. The blend of footage and extensive audio interviews has an effortless effect in creating so many different story threads that concoct the myth of Maradona. Kapadia's direction has these threads develop through the runtime and climax at all the right moments as we see Maradona's football highlights, family history, and criminal activity develop before our eyes.
Many documentaries would cut away from the footage for a talking head interview with Maradona himself or one the many journalists or acquaintances who lend their insight to the documentary. Diego Maradona never breaks from the engrossing footage with the audio interviews providing context and historical relevance to events such as Naples standing within Italy. It's not just football matches that Kapadia creates excitement from but moments of time captured in locker rooms after victory, Maradona with friends and family, at his highest and lowest. The film at times becomes so intimate in its access to Maradona's life it feels that a time machine had to be involved in the production of the documentary.
No matter you're knowledge of Diego Maradona, there is so much to absorb and learn from the film. As mentioned before, Kapadia's weaving of narrative threads through the runtime gives the documentary a dramatic structure especially with the hindsight from interviewees and the filmmakers. Its an amazing parable to the double-edged sword of fame, to see Maradona go from a ridiculed Argentinian to an individual worshipped as a God in Naples is incredible. You can see corruption take hold of the documentaries characters, not just in Maradona but from those who seek to profit from him and how this greed created a powder keg of resentment and animosity for all.
Diego Maradona doesn't try to be a redemption piece for the football player but an in-depth look at the most tumultuous period of his career and life. To offer a reflection on his most iconic and infamous moments that have been judged and analysed tenfold by professionals and amateurs, from World Cup victories, handballs, championships, and becoming the most hated man in a city he would call home. Despite the complete immersion from the footage, Kapadia can show that during this time of high emotion, that Maradona was many things to many people; Hero, God, Traitor, Criminal but most importunately that he was a man, a man who made mistakes, a man who felt fear and a man who wanted to play the best game he could. Kapadia doesn't ask us to forgive Maradona but to emphasise with him so we can understand his story all the better.
It almost seems I'm not writing about a football player but some kind dignitary or fallen messiah and for a time that is what Maradona was to many. Diego Maradona is one those documentaries that transcend its subject matter and becomes a larger conversation into public figures. To just say Diego Maradona was just a football player is a disservice to his impact on the world as it can be clearly seen with how Kapadia builds his documentary. You can have interviews deify him in interviews thirty years on to little effect but this documentary takes you to every place you need to go, from football fields to the streets of Naples and beyond to show how he was viewed.
A literal time capsule in its own right, Diego Maradona will transport audiences back to witness a living legend be born before their eyes. Praise and more praise to Kapadia and editor Chris King for combing through all of this historical material to create this mesmerising tragedy. The humanisation of public figures may at times feel like revisionist history at work but Kapadia's care to the story and the vast ramifications of Maradona's actions allow for new contexts to be drawn from this period of Italian football history.
Director: #AsifKapadia
Cast: #DiegoArmandoMaradona, #ClaudiaVillafañe, #DiegoMaradonaJr, #CristianaSinagra, #CorradoFerlaino, #MariaRosaMaradona
Release Date: June 14th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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