Review of 'Living with MND', a BBC documentary about Rob Burrow and his MND journey.
BBC from Rub Burrow, Living with MND
There’s nothing more honest than portraying such a heart-breaking and cruel condition of a professional rugby league player.
Rob Burrow, ex former player of the English rugby team, faces the cruel consequences of Motor Neurone Disease.
All these aspects are shown in this 30-minute documentary, including his speaking ability, friends, family, physical limitations and other personal facets with an honest and emotional touch.
Throughout this documentary, Rob’s life is represented in a very sincere and illustrated way: a big amount of visual material is shown to get to know how Rob’s life was before his condition and how it is now.
The most shocking and heart-breaking aspect of this series are the interviews: silence, honesty, tears and one spotlight. The technique used when speaking individually to Rob’s parents, his best friend, wife and kids presents a real and sincere perspective to the documentary.
However, there are different audio-visual styles that can be sensed throughout the documentary that reflect the emotions perfectly. When showing their daily lives, a casual style predominates the angles and lights to truthfully portray a day-to-day sensation, which is incredibly well reflected with cool colours and unsteady visuals.
Another aspect that is incredibly well found in this film is giving her doctor a voice, Dr Agam Jung. A professional perspective is truly important to get to know the condition better from a medical point of view.
Nevertheless, it’s really shocking to see how Dr Jung’s professional interventions can be mixed with emotion; it shows that it’s an extremely difficult condition to live with.
Bravery and hope are the absolute values that this documentary transmits. The most remarkable aspect of this series is that it doesn’t reflect how Rob’s life has gotten more difficult and hurtful, but it shows how much his family and friends love him.
The narrative and angles of this film show how to overcome this condition’s difficulties with love, bravery and strength; it shows how you can always have a heart-warming impact on people, and a disease is never going to change that.
There are at least 84 people in the region living with the same condition as Rob, although that figure only represents those who are in contact with and known to the Merseyside branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Its chair, Alun Owen, said: “The general feedback from people at our last meeting is that Rob Burrow has raised awareness to a very large extent. His efforts have been embraced by the MND Association and therefore, the raised awareness has been massive, alongside the income generated from his willingness to be a figurehead for MND campaigning.”
3.8/5 stars.
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