Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘In the Hand of Dante,’ the stories of two writers, separated by seven centuries, run parallel, focusing on one piece of literature. On the one hand, we have Dante Alighieri in the process of writing ‘The Divine Comedy,’ and on the other, we have Nick Tosches, who is hired by a gangster to retrieve and authenticate Dante’s original manuscript. While Nick’s story is violent and bloody, Dante also goes through a transformative journey that informs his masterpiece. The final leg of his writing process takes him to a secluded island, called the Isle of the Damned, which becomes a critical location in his work. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Isle of the Damned Refers to a Location in Dante’s Work
The Isle of the Damned is a fictional location in ‘In the Hand of Dante.’ It appears in the second half of the film, when Dante is in the middle of writing ‘The Divine Comedy’ and finds inspiration in the people and places around him. His search for a location that would inspire him to find the deserved ending for his tale leads him to the Isle of the Damned. Reaching there requires him to be on a ship that is struck by one calamity after another on the way. The situation gets so dire that other people on the ship pray for death. Eventually, however, the clouds part, the weather gets better, and they reach their destination. Dante is the only one who boards off at the Isle of the Damned and walks up its seemingly endless stairs.
While it cannot be confirmed if Dante visited such an isolated island in real life, he certainly did create a similar one in his poem. One of the sections in ‘The Divine Comedy’ features Purgatory, which the Italian poet describes as an island mountain. There are several levels the sinners must work through before they can finally be redeemed and leave the place to continue their journey in the afterlife. The Isle of the Damned seems to have been modeled on the fictional Purgatory, likely to show the audience where the poet drew his inspiration for the place. In real life, it seems that the scenes featuring the island were shot at Castello di Sant’Alessio Siculo, located in the Messina province of Sicily, Italy, which served as one of the major filming locations for the Netflix feature.
The island, which is much larger than the one depicted in ‘In the Hand of Dante,’ overlooks the Ionian Sea and has been a historic site in the country. Believed to have been constructed sometime in the 15th century, it passed through the hands of several aristocratic families before becoming state property following Italy’s unification. Soon after, it was reported to have been sold to Marquess Pietro Mauro. Currently, it is private property and is not open to visitors. The locations with the stony stairs rising from the ocean towards the top of the hill, where a castle stands, fit perfectly with the themes of Dante’s work.
The story required the character to visit a location that shows his physical and mental isolation, so much of the background of the real location has likely been edited out to achieve that effect. In terms of the story, the location serves the purpose, completing Dante’s personal and spiritual journey such that he finally knows where to end the epic tale that he has been working on for years. It marks a critical point for him personally, as well as for the world, which is soon familiarised with his work, which becomes so iconic that centuries later, gangsters spill blood to get their hands on it.
Read More: In the Hand of Dante: Is Dante’s Manuscript Real?
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