Great cinema for a great Bayern team: on Thursday evening, the FC Bayern production Generation Wembley premiered at the Sendlinger Tor cinema in Munich. The audience in the theatre were treated to a 90-minute cinema version of the documentary about the 2013 Champions League winners, which will be shown as a six-part series on Amazon Prime from 20 October.
"It's a great documentary, also with all the people who speak in it," said Philipp Lahm, who attended the premiere along with several other players from that team, such as Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller. "It tells the story: where our generation came from, what they had to deal with and how we came back from it stronger to then celebrate maximum success." Not only Müller was visibly moved by the cinematic portrayal of this defining chapter in the club's history. "I'm certainly a bit touched. It was nice and I enjoyed it," he reflected. "The documentary takes you on the complete journey of this generation and goes very deep."
Ten years on from the triumph at Wembley, the documentary lets numerous players, coaches and decision-makers from the time have their say. Onlookers and opponents such as Sir Alex Ferguson, José Mourinho, Hans-Joachim Watzke and current Barcelona coach Xavi also give their take on the German record champions. They describe how a team picked itself off the ground after the lost "Finale Dahoam" in 2012 and came back stronger.
"This generation showed what this club stands for and what fascinates fans so much: that FC Bayern Munich never give up and always get back up," said president Herbert Hainer during the premiere. Honorary president Uli Hoeneß concurred: "Nobody expected a team to recover in such short time from that shock, which affected the whole city. It was an epic triumph." The time around the two finals in 2012 and 2013 was "a crash course in emotions", as CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen put it: "It was like a frenzy, we lost virtually no games."
Anyone who wants to relive this incredible journey should definitely not miss the documentary by the two producers Dominik Beyer and Bianca Preysing from FC Bayern's club media team, which was staged with true-to-life detail and a great deal of passion.
More information on the documentary here:
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