Oscar winning director Paolo Sorrentino said at the Naples premiere of his autobiographical Neapolitan coming of age film E Stata la Mano di Dio (It Was The Hand Of God) that it was a homage to the cinema of late Neapolitan actor and director Massimo Troisi.

"There is only one protective deity over this film and that is Massimo Troisi. There is no Fellini, nothing else, only the cinema of Trosi, from the start to the end," said Sorrentino at the presentation of the film, which takes its name from the (in)famous goal by Diego Maradona against England in the 1986 World Cup.