Kobe - An Italian story, review: the origins of a legend

Kobe - An Italian story, review

Kobe - An Italian story, as the title suggests, perfectly anticipates what the material behind the entire docufilm will be. Directed by Jesus Garcés Lambert, written by Giovanni Filippetto and produced by Alessandro Lostia for Indigo Stories, available on the Amazon Prime Video catalog from September 15th. Kobe Bryant's history with basketball starts from his earliest age, reconnecting to the very identity of his family.

To subscribe to the Prime Video streaming service, also taking advantage of the 30-day trial, you can use this link. Sport is not just made up of matches, scores and rankings, but above all of people and stories. Starting from this premise, the narration of Kobe - An Italian story develops. Within the great contexts linked to competitions, it is easy to find some faces that have literally shaped the current sporting concepts related to them. These are players who have given everything to achieve greatness, inextricably linked to a popular imagination that has made them immortal. In the NBA it happens very often to extrapolate characters of the genre, spirited young people also coming from difficult contexts, ready to rise by demonstrating all their potential on the playing field. Fame and success are however conveyed by a whole series of elements, also related to consumerism, which tend to hide human realities behind the image of success that emerges. So much so that in some cases fans limit themselves to praising their favorites without delving into their origins, thus cutting out everything that is not strength and talent in the game. Yet there is much more to discover.

Kobe - An Italian story, a story told by those who lived it

When we talk about Kobe Bryant, we immediately focus on his image as a champion, given the incredible tenacity demonstrated by him on and off the pitch. His results, the championships won and the so-called "Mamba Mentality" have forever shaped his image and sporting perception in the ages to come. Behind all of this, of course, was a human being who gave everything for a sport that elevated it, and for which he also paid some dear price.


This constant sacrifice has actually led him to the success we all know, generating the aforementioned myth of the ferocious "mamba" who attacks his opponents on the field to defeat, without any mercy. The story of the rise of this legend, however, has origins far away from the Los Angeles of the much-loved Lakers, with some important elements that have still left their mark today.


28860139 Due to the professional career of his father, Joe Bryant, his family followed him to Italy, moving from place to place according to the teams he decided to play for. The childhood of little Kobe then developed between Rieti, Reggio Emilia and Pistoia, approaching the game with the ball in wedges at this very early stage of his life. Probably fascinated by his father and by the greats of history (it is often reported that little Kobe spent hours and hours watching the games of legends such as Magic, Bird or Jordan), he began to take an interest in them right in our land, with his first attempts as a player.

The documentary itself, therefore, develops its narrative starting right here and deepening the Italian context in which Kobe grew up and in which he later returned. The main means to do this takes it from the direct testimonies of those who knew him at an early age (friends, teachers, coaches), who punctuate the entire structure with memories, photographs, thoughts and fragments of a completely personal past.

The attachment to Italy

One of the most interesting sides to emerge from Kobe - An Italian story is precisely the particular attachment that this player had with Italy, a nostalgic and perhaps even romantic Italy from his point of view, but still fundamental for training as a man and as a player. Therefore, the interviews in which he speaks Italian and his childhood years are not delayed, accompanied by some "escapes" that he made without warning during his life, to see the friends of that time. From these particular situations a Kobe emerges that seems very different from the hungry player obsessed with victory, humanizing an image modulated on some of his very important interventions, for an overall reading of the story before the player.



Kobe - An all-Italian story From all this the connection with the letter he wrote during his retirement (Dear Basketball, which resulted in an animated short film that also won the Oscar), shaping the tones of the whole documentary on a much more intimate and personal dimension, always traveling through the mouth of those who wanted to intervene, remembering what it was like at the time. A character known for his determination split in two by the memories of his neighbor which confirms his determination, but also his deep humanity and imperfection.

Building and rebuilding

The entire narrative of Kobe - An Italian story moves along three precise and specific fronts. We have interviews with people who knew him (accompanied by photographs of the time), we have archive videos (through which it is possible to glimpse some fleeting moments connected to Kobe's family, to him as a child, and adult, and to his father in campo) and we have the reconstructions with actors, used to give a context, albeit figurative, to the material linked to the memories at stake.



Kobe - An all-Italian story The product, in its entirety , Works from start to finish, providing a multifaceted image of a sports legend, on which today it is still reflected, extrapolating from the chat on the sidelines an entire personal imagination ready to expand once again everything that has been said up to now about this player.