IN THE HAND OF DANTE
Director: Julian Schnabel 
USA, Italy, 2025, 150 min
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Louis Cancelmi, Franco Nero  

 

 

“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a dark wood…”
We have been told that manuscripts do not burn. By the same people who warned us never to talk to strangers…
After all, the most dangerous things in this world often begin with the most innocent request: “May I take a look?”
One day, a moderately unsuccessful and somewhat careless writer comes into possession of a rare manuscript attributed to Dante Alighieri. Supposedly for the purpose of authentication.
A coincidence? Or someone’s dangerous invitation?
A cautious and prudent man would walk away and forget about it. But after noticing suspicious activity surrounding the manuscript, our enterprising man of letters becomes drawn into a perilous game filled with dark secrets and ominous portents.
Then something inexplicable begins to happen. Time and space collide, intertwining parallel lives separated by seven centuries.
People appear and vanish without a trace, moving between the twenty-first and the fourteenth centuries, until it becomes impossible to tell where our modern-day literary adventurer ends and the author of The Divine Comedy begins.
Heaven and Hell. Love and betrayal. Beauty and obsession.
The text becomes a mirror in which everyone sees both their own abyss and the faint light shimmering in its depths.
As a rule, everything begins with curiosity and ends… Well, who ever said that stories like this truly have an ending?
In the Hand of Dante is a grand, ambitious and deeply contradictory cinematic experience from the acclaimed director Julian Schnabel.
A richly layered and exquisitely crafted work that binds together historical drama, detective mystery and an inner journey into a single tapestry. Rarely does a film refuse to be convenient or easily accessible, choosing instead its own audience — thoughtful, discerning viewers willing to risk stepping inside the story itself.
Please note: the film will be screened in its complete director’s cut, uncut and uncensored.