Edited from hundreds of hours of previously unseen footage, Asif Kapadia’s documentary blockbuster is not so much a film about football as about life in general.
Assembled from rare archival footage, the detailed story of Diego Maradona’s life and career by British filmmaker Asif Kapadia was not made specifically for football fans nor for the fans of the great Argentinian player who spent most of his career at Napoli. In Kapadia’s hands the archival footage becomes an almost universal fable about human life.
Maradona has everything: a childhood of poverty; commitment and struggle; a rags to riches turn; temptations of money and fame; defection to the dark side represented by alleged mafia connections; drug problems; a symbolic downfall and an equally symbolic resurrection from nowhere—as well as football: the perfect allegory for the fight against the world and oneself, which only the strongest among us can win. Kapadia has previously directed successful documentaries about singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse and racing champion Ayrton Senna.
Diego Maradona premiered at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
Diego Maradona
Director: Asif Kapadia
UK, 2019. 130 min, 18+
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