Díaz Lima finishes documentary on unprecedented medical accomplishment

ALGECIRAS
(Photo: EuropaSur) Documentary film maker Juan Manuel Díaz Lima finished shooting a documentary in Algeciras on the life of Andrés Mariscal, who was subjected to an unprecedented medical procedure a year ago, receiving his brother's umbilical chord blood to save him from severe and, until then, uncurable congenital anaemia. The story with a happy ending received hardly any media coverage, which led Díaz Lima to make the documentary.>

Díaz Lima, who also made a documentary on Jimena's International Music Festival (R.I.P.) in 2007 (see trailer here) and another on smuggling in the Campo de Gibraltar, was born and raised in Algeciras, where little Andrés Mariscal lives, but now lives and works in Madrid.

His new venture, co-produced by his Veo Veo Producciones company and Creta Producciones, is in the editorial process, culling over 30 hours of filming. "It is one hundred percent natural," says Díaz Lima, "so that the result is hyper realistic. It was very difficult, but we managed it." The film, also shot at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville, where the transplant took place, contains no voices on off, for example, and includes a routine visit by Andrés to his haematologist.

Behind the film director in the photo above is his good friend (and Prospero's) Pelayo assisting. And behind them is Andrés's mother, holding her youngest son Javier, who made the life saving donation.