As in his previous works, the artist’s stylistic hallmarks include his elliptical, metacinematic approach to storytelling, his unconventional collaboration with non-actors, his use of natural light and colour inspired by Renaissance paintings,[3] along with meticulously-composed single-takes and diegetic soundscapes.

[5] Unlike Rapisarda's previous works, where he adopted a "one-man-crew" approach,[2] Hegel's Angel is the result of his tight collaboration with a small crew composed by former students and their relatives and friends.

Rapisarda’s commitment to collaboration, or “shared ethnography”, as inspired by filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch,[2] infuses his work and results in all participants being credited as co-writers of the film.

Since this approach doesn't clear the ethical issues, Rapisarda adopts a wide range of actions, inside and outside the filmmaking process, to balance what he considers the implicit exploitative character of the medium.

[7] The title blends together ideas drawn from the work of Walter Benjamin "Theses on the Philosophy of History" and Susan Buck-Morss argument on Hegel's theorization of the master-slave dialectic following the Haitian Revolution of 1791.