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Movistar + shows the ex-soccer player’s struggle with ALS for an hour and a half in ‘Vivir vale la pena’.
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The report has been directed by the journalist Mónica Marchante and has the collaboration of Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Xavi, among others.
“I would like to know if you could make a documentary about ALS.” There were still a few days to go before Juan Carlos Unzué publicly announced that he had the disease when he called the journalist Mónica Marchante. He did not wait. Neither did the first meetings, recordings, trips and, above all, the ideas that the exporter and former Barça coach was giving to the Movistar+ production team.
The Thursday at 10 p.m. ‘Living is worth it’ premieres in #Vamos, which will see the light of day this Tuesday in a private screening, at the Sant Pau hospital, with the presence of the Manchester City and Barça coaches, Pep Guardiola Y Xavi Hernandez, as well as that of the selector Luis Enrique who have wanted to clothe Unzué.
Over an hour and 27 minutes, the documentary shows the evolution of the disease and, above all, the naturalness with which the former soccer player faces his new life without ever losing optimism. “We wanted to have it ready to coincide with the European Championship last summer, but above all the pandemic forced us to gradually delay the premiere. We were not able to record the last shots until October,” he says. Marchante the director of the report.
“When you learn to die, you learn to live.”
And living is worth it.Juan Carlos Unzué: Thursday 27, #VivirValELApena pic.twitter.com/kRWcUKduZP
— Report+ by Movistar Plus+ (@InformePlus) January 12, 2022
Unzué I wanted to have finished it in June. And in June he traveled, accompanied by the cameras, to Seville because he did not want to miss his son’s debut Aitor as his friend’s assistant Luis Enrique. There he met up with old comrades from his Sevilla era with a dinner that included old legends of the club such as Monchi, Rafa Paz, Diego, Martagón… “It was an opportunity for everyone to remember anecdotes of Maradona Y Billiards”, remember Marchante between laughs..
Unzué The documentary begins leaning out of the balcony of an apartment in Calella de Palafrugell, he travels to the Camp Nou, to Tajonar, where he trained as an Osasuna player, and also to the Bellvitge and Sant Pau hospitals where the doctors who treat him for ALS work. “And it ends with a very impressive image, with a bike, and that has to do with friendship, family and music, with his philosophy of life, and that will be moving for everyone who sees it,” he says. Marchante. The bike, cycling was one of the passions of Unzué following the family tradition.
“In ‘Living is worth it’, friends like Guardiola, Xavi, Luis Enrique, his family, like his brother Eusebio and participate Mary, the woman from Juan Carlos. It was very special, and you can see in the documentary, the visit that the couple made in Zaragoza when they went to see Jorge, a boy who needs the help of a respirator and speaks through a computer”.
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tough but hopeful
It is a hard but hopeful documentary; friendly, full of life but accompanied by what it means to face the reality of a degenerative disease called ALS and that unfortunately not only has no cure but the patients hardly have help to deal with it. “The documentary does not intend to soften the harshness of ALS, but rather it is like a showcase that shows how it deteriorates an athlete, a healthy and strong person until then,” he adds. Marchante who has worked for a year and a half with a team made up of five cameras and two producers with the making of Edgar Delgado who always worked alongside Michael Robinson in his unforgettable reports. The television appointment, this Thursday night.