DIEGO MARADONA (15) ★★★★ ★
LONDON-BORN film-maker Asif Kapadia collected numerous awards for his documentaries about F1 driver Ayrton Senna and singer Amy Winehouse.
In his impeccably constructed new film, Kapadia focuses on a deeply divisive figure, who emerged from the rubble of his spectacular self-destruction and has continued to make headlines off the football pitch.
Diego Maradona begins on July 5, 1984 with grainy footage of cars slaloming at speed through the winding streets of Naples bound for the Stadio San Paolo.
There 23-year-old Diego Armando Maradona is about to be unveiled to more than 75,000 frenzied fans of ailing Serie A side SSC Napoli.
President Corrado Ferlaino has paid a record £6.9m to Barcelona, hoping that the Argentinian striker can loosen the grip of clubs in northern Italy over the league.
Archive footage and home videos chart those early years with the club, leading to the 1986 World Cup and the notorious ‘hand of God’ incident. The following season in Italy, Napoli win the Serie A title and the coveted Coppa Italia – a historic double that sparks two months of celebrations in the city.
At the same time, Maradona begins to fraternise with organised crime and takes his first snort of cocaine.
Kapadia’s film spares few blushes as it chronicles the souring relationship between Maradona and fans.
It lacks the emotional gut punch of Senna and Amy, but is nonetheless a compelling snapshot of a self-made celebrity, who precipitated his own demise.