In the Hand of Dante (2025)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A mob boss's quest to steal a legendary manuscript of the Divine Comedy leads to a clash between the artistic past and a brutal modern reality.
The story
The film follows the journey of a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, discovered in a hidden Vatican cellar. The document eventually finds its way to a mob boss in New York City. The narrative juxtaposes two worlds: the artistic, mystical world of the early 1300s, depicted in color, and the modern, brutal landscape of the present day, depicted in black-and-white. In the modern era, a renowned Dante expert is hired by a mafia don to confirm the manuscript's existence and steal it, accompanied by an assassin and a goon who travel to the Vatican to retrieve it.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The film follows a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy found in a hidden Vatican cellar, which makes its way to a mob boss in New York City, ending up in the hands of Nick Tosches. The narrative is structured to contrast the artistic world of the early 1300s, shown in color where Oscar Isaac portrays Dante seeking mystical knowledge, against the modern-day world shown in black-and-white. In the present, Nick Tosches, a renowned Dante expert, is hired by a mafia don named Joe Black to confirm the manuscript's existence and steal it. Tosches is accompanied by an assassin named Louie and a goon named Lefty. The group travels to the Vatican to verify and retrieve the manuscript. The film explores the tension between art as a spiritual pursuit and art as a commodity in a greedy landscape.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 153
- Production countries
- Italy; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Julian Schnabel
- Writers
- Julian Schnabel · writer; Louise Kugelberg · writer
- Cast and characters
- Oscar Isaac · Dante / Nick Tosches; Gal Gadot; Gerard Butler · Louie; John Malkovich · Joe Black; Louis Cancelmi · Lefty; Benjamin Clementine; Martin Scorsese; Al Pacino; Jason Momoa
- Genres
- drama
- Themes
- Art as commodity; Sacred vs. Profane
- Tone and mood
- Contrast; Violent
- Premise and plot tags
- Heist; Historical Contrast
- Source material / true-story basis
- 2002 novel by Nick Tosches
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising the ambition and specific performances while criticizing the screenplay as uneven and the overall execution as bloated or insincere.
- Reported review scores
- The Guardian · score: 3 · scale: 5
- Production trivia
- Originally intended to star and be produced by Johnny Depp.; The film features a distinct visual contrast between color and black-and-white sequences.; The production was filmed in Italy starting in October 2023.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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