How Kevin Koch scored with Naples

Can you tell us a little about your journey into directing?

My first steps into filmmaking happened back when I didn't really know the difference between being behind the camera and directing. I filmed my friends skateboarding, skiing and snowboarding, and as a crew we made a film every year and showed it in our little town to friends, and friends of friends.

After graduating I studied media studies, and there, through projects with friends and fellow students, I made my first documentaries. Together with a friend I accompanied a young homeless woman for over two years, and an excerpt from that film got me into Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, where I have been studying directing since 2020.

Over the last six years I have experimented a lot with what cinema can do, shooting everything from documentaries to short fiction, commercials to earn money, and passion projects like Sotto il Vesuvio, which is a kind of back-to-the-roots film.

How did the idea of making a portrait of Naples first arise, and why did football feel like the right way into the character of the city?

My first time in Naples was in spring 2024, and I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere of the city and its people. I also saw an SSC Napoli match at the Stadio Maradona, which was an exceptional experience. After that I followed the club more closely, and just a year later it came down to a head-to-head battle with Inter Milan for the Italian championship.

When Anian [Krone, DP] had the SR3 on his shoulder next to the stadium, with thousands of people celebrating around him, people told us we were completely crazy to be shooting on that kind of equipment in the middle of the wildest party Naples had seen in years.

I called my best friend and DP Anian [Krone] and said: "if Napoli doesn't lose today and Inter doesn't win, the final match in Naples will decide the championship, and we should be there to capture an atmosphere the city hasn't had since Maradona left".

Speaking of him, he is the character of the city. The god, the almighty Maradona. Wherever you look you see him. On the walls, on T-shirts, on posters, even on people's skin. In Naples there is no way around football. Everybody loves it and lives it in a way I haven't experienced anywhere else.

Also a huge shoutout to the boys from urbanuncut, who immediately responded to my pitch paper and said: boys, we’re on board, let's go, we make this film together. Without them, we couldn’t have made that film. It’s a rare thing to get this much trust in the industry when you don’t know each other.

The film feels extraordinarily immediate, as though the camera is being carried along by the same energy as the crowds. How did you and cinematographer Anian Krone prepare for a shoot in which so much depended on reacting to events in the moment?

Anian is a very talented DP who loves going to extremes. In terms of preparation, though, we still carried far too much equipment. We each had two big backpacks with an ARRI SR3 and a lot of lenses, plus everything for our second camera, a Bolex.

Our producer and sound recordist Linus carried another big backpack and a huge tripod strapped to the side of his scooter. We rode scooters through the city the whole time, which was fun on the one hand and quite a challenge on the other, because the traffic is crazy and we weren't used to it, although we adapted to the narrow streets quickly.

When Anian had the SR3 on his shoulder next to the stadium, with thousands of people celebrating around him, people told us we were completely crazy to be shooting on that kind of equipment in the middle of the wildest party Naples had seen in years.

You shot the film on 16mm, despite working in huge, unpredictable crowds where there would be no opportunity to capture unlimited footage. Why was film the right format, and how did that limitation affect the decisions you made on the ground?

The decision to shoot on film was there from the beginning, before we had any idea what situations would arise. Naples, with its mood, its colours and its atmosphere, is made for 16mm. If you see it with your own eyes, you know. The whole nostalgia around Maradona is perfect ground for film as well.

We used leftover rolls from my previous short Mother of a Son, some short ends and a few Bolex rolls, so limitation was a factor from the outset. It was a challenge to focus only on the pivotal moments, on the most important aspects of the city, but I feel our creativity reaches another level when we can't shoot everything, when there is no "we'll fix it in post", which is a sentence I don't agree with.

Limitation helps you make the most of a situation. It forces you to look very closely, to observe, and to put yourself in the right place at the right time.

For such a short student documentary, the cinematography is remarkably assured and cinematic. How did you and Anian establish a visual approach while still leaving enough freedom to follow whatever Naples gave you?

Anian and I have been making films together since our first year of film school. We know each other very well, and I trust him and his eye. He always comes up with something new, something I haven't seen before. So in Naples he was shooting, and I tried to guide him towards the things I was noticing.

Limitation helps you make the most of a situation. It forces you to look very closely, to observe, and to put yourself in the right place at the right time.

Naples helped us enormously. There is so much happening everywhere at the same time. When you go there you find magic moments and beautiful encounters on every corner. The city offers so much that you simply have to open your eyes and let things unfold in front of you.

Since we didn't have much film stock, we had to stay focused and find the right balance, deciding which shots needed to breathe and which ones were complete after three or four seconds. That balance wasn't easy, but I think that, together with Emma's extraordinary editing, we managed to build a nice mosaic of the city around the final game of the championship.

At only three minutes, the film offers an intense impression of the city rather than a conventional documentary explanation of it. Was that brevity always central to the idea, and what did you deliberately leave outside the frame?

We knew from the start that it would be a short-format film, partly because of the material and partly because we only spent five days in Naples. The challenge was to use those three minutes to portray the city in a way that Neapolitans would recognise themselves in, while still carrying the emotion to viewers anywhere in the world.

The one thing we really left outside the frame was the game itself. It wasn't important for us to show the match or the players, because the heart of the film is everything that happens around it. The match belongs to the players and the television channels.

Most of us will never play a game like that, but supporting a club, going out into the streets and celebrating is something most of us do, especially during the World Cup. That is universal, and that is where people can connect.

You filmed around the match that ultimately delivered Napoli the championship. How much of the film depended on the result, and did you have another version of the story in mind if the night had ended differently?

There were two possible outcomes. Napoli wins and it becomes a hero's journey. Napoli loses and it becomes a tragedy. Both were fine for us, because both stories belong to the city.

It wasn't important for us to show the match or the players, because the heart of the film is everything that happens around it. 

Maradona came and Napoli won, but it was also in Naples, during the World Cup, that Maradona scored a penalty for Argentina, and the people here never forgave him for it. The city is full of extremes, so either version, the tragedy or the hero story, would have been extreme.

That said, witnessing that madness after the final whistle was an experience I wouldn't want to have missed. So I'm more than happy that SSC Napoli won and that we got to tell the little hero story.

What did making this film teach you that you'll take into your next project?

It taught me to trust myself and the people I make films with. We didn't plan anything, and yet we made a film I'm very proud of, at least in my opinion. We did it with no pressure and no expectations from anyone.

We simply had fun doing what we love, and that reminded me why I started making films in the first place, which is because it's fun. That is something I want to hold onto in future projects, including the first feature I'm writing at the moment.