Alexia: Labor Omnia Vincit
A documentary following Alexia Putellas through triumph and injury.
Alexia: Labor Omnia Vincit is a Spanish sports documentary miniseries about FC Barcelona Femení and Spain footballer Alexia Putellas, released by Amazon Prime Video in most Ibero-American countries on 30 November 2022. The series follows Putellas for a year between winning her first and second Ballons d'Or, initially intended to document her history and 2021–22 season including the 2022 Euro.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Sports documentary
- Director
- Joanna Pardos
- Starring
- Alexia Putellas
- Country
- Spain
- Language
- Spanish
- Producer
- Javier Martínez; Luis Calvo
- Location
- Barcelona, Spain
- Turin, Italy
- Paris, France
- Cinematography
- Alan Fàbregas
Facts from the source article.
Production
After winning her first Ballon d'Or Féminin in November 2021, Alexia Putellas was asked to make a documentary. She said no at first, but changed her mind because there were very few documentaries about female athletes. The production team then followed her for a year. Her representative, Josep María Figueras, said they received many offers for biopics and decided to go ahead with this one to inspire others using Putellas' story. Putellas had already appeared in the 2021 Rakuten TV miniseries Campeonas. In January 2022, TV3 aired a three-part Catalan-language documentary about her rise and gender equality in football, La nit d'Alèxia. The next month, Barça TV+ started the six-part series Queens of the Pitch, which covered FC Barcelona Femení's 2020–21 season. Putellas noted in March 2022 that the club said they should record documentaries every year if they end like that. Filming began in early 2022, and Putellas announced the three-part miniseries Alexia: Labor Omnia Vincit on the Spanish show El Hormiguero on 16 June 2022. It was meant to focus on her career at Barcelona and her path to the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 with Spain. In early July 2022, Putellas tore her anterior cruciate ligament, which kept her out of the Euro and sidelined her for a long time. The production team paused filming and suggested a new direction. Figueras thought including the injury and how Putellas changed afterward was a chance to show the real life of an elite athlete. He also said it leaves the door open for another episode about her return. The title uses the Latin phrase Labor omnia vincit, meaning "work conquers all"; Putellas has a back tattoo of the longer version "labor omnia vincit improbus." In the title, the "xi" in her name is styled to highlight the Roman numeral for eleven, her shirt number. On 2 December 2022, Mundo Deportivo reported that a second season of the miniseries has been planned.
Release and marketing
Amazon Prime Video released two trailers for the documentary before its release date was made public. The first, from September 2022, highlighted Putellas' climb to the top of women's football. The second, from November 2022, centered on her season-ending injury and her second Ballon d'Or win, which had taken place in October 2022. The documentary dropped on Amazon Prime Video on 30 November 2022, with availability limited to Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, excluding Brazil and Mexico. In March 2023, Abacus picked up the media rights for most of the rest of the world, leaving out Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Latin America, and the United States. The show's poster portrayed Putellas as a Greek goddess. The use of Latin for the subtitle and episode titles nods to Classical antiquity and also mirrors Putellas' own personality and approach to football. Director Joanna Pardos explained that the Classical imagery is meant to underscore how Putellas has reached a status in football that is typically reserved for men, allowing her to be seen as a goddess on Olympus among gods. A premiere took place on 29 November 2022 at the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona, marking the anniversary of Putellas' first Ballon d'Or win and falling the day before the general release. The event ran an hour and a half late and was attended by several Barcelona femení players, other club figures, and Catalan personalities such as Bojan Krkić, Gemma Mengual, Ona Carbonell, Rigoberta Bandini, and Carlos Sadness. The series became available on Barça TV+ on 31 May 2023. In July 2023, all three episodes were added to Qatar Airways' in-flight entertainment. It launched in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the United Kingdom in July and August 2023 on the Sky subscription network. Episodes aired to coincide with Spain's knockout matches at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on Sky Documentaries in the UK, and on both Sky Documentaries and Sky Sport in German-speaking countries, where it was titled Alexia Putellas: Ikone des Fußballs.
Reception
Cinemagavia rated the series 70%, praising its editing and narrative structure as effective for both the sports documentary genre and telling Putellas' story, calling it essential for grasping her significance in Spanish football. Defector also gave a positive review; critic Emile Avanessian noted that while some moments highlight Putellas' unmatched skill, the documentary's real strength lies in subverting the sports documentary formula by concentrating on failure and setbacks without a triumphant conclusion. Avanessian described the insight as "illuminating" and rare for the genre, and said it benefited Putellas and women's sports by allowing "the much sadder story" to be told. The show ranked among the top ten most popular on Prime Video España for the week ending 3 December 2022 and again the following week. Mundo Deportivo called the series a success and, alongside other upcoming documentaries about female footballers, argued it "confirmed women's football as a real goldmine" for popular content. The documentary includes a widely discussed moment from April 2022, where Putellas expressed frustration about heading to the European Championship and stated that Spain does not support its women's team as much as other nations, making them unlikely contenders for international titles. In 2023, the series received a nomination for the International Emmy Award for Best Sports Documentary, the only Spanish nominee at the 51st International Emmy Awards.
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