Inside Borussia Dortmund (2019) - Review

A deep dive into the club that holds a soft spot in the hearts of many football fans the world over

Inside Borussia Dortmund Poster

Produced by Amazon, Inside Borussia Dortmund is the first season of a ‘fly on the wall’ documentary series that followed the German club and their heart breaking shortcomings of the 2018/19 Bundesliga football season, capturing a unique perspective in a time where the Black and Yellow were rebuilding and in the process of a transitional phase.

2018/19, A season that saw Bundesliga mainstays VFB Stuttgart relegated, the emergence of RB Leipzig as a force and Bayern Munich scrape their 29th League Title, it was one of the more competitive league seasons of top flight German football in recent history and Alijoscha Pause’s docu-series follows the universally like Dortmund as they mounted a serious title challenge for the first time since the departure of Jürgen Klopp to Liverpool in 2015. Ultimately the club fell two points short of Bayern as the Munich based juggernauts sealed the title in the last, dying ambers of the season, Pause captures the journey of the year prior, whilst tackling a number of key events and highlighting key periods in club history - which leads nicely onto the following.

Lucien Favre (Left) & Captain Marco Reus (Right)

My biggest issue with the show is it’s mumbled focus. In fairness to the subjects, be that Lucien Favre, Sebastian Kehl, Michael ZoEx, or any of the other players and staff who are interviewed for the piece, they do offer a lot of qualitative value and really shape why the club is held so fondly. That said I would prefer if the series had implemented more of a stronger timeline/structure. Ultimately, the matter at hand is the football season that was then contemporary - the story is at a climax and I’d have preferred to have more of a focus on that and all the drama which comes with it rather than jumping back and forth to the mid 20th century rise to stardom, near bankruptcy in the mid 2000s and then the following Klopp revolution. I understand fully that this is all contextual information that’s required to chart how Dortmund fair from season to season but in all honesty, the aforementioned ‘sub-plots’ of the show are, if anything, worthy of more time than what can be afforded here and so are lessened a bit by the lack of airtime they receive as well as simultaneously coming across as padding. I personally have been indulging in a lot of football content as we‘re in this lull between domestic competition and the European calendar and have found a lot of the content to be varying in quality and quite significantly so as well. Having recently seen Messi, This is Football and indulging in the offerings of VERSUS as well as other outlets, I find these supposedly ‘professional’, more traditional products are lacking. Thankfully these club based documentaries have a bit more value than the current offerings surrounding some of the games stars, be that one of Messi or Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos or so on - it’s nice to get a glance into these icons of the modern game but they come across as little more than adoration/worship pieces from a cult, but perhaps worst of all are pretty much redundant given many of the players are still active and the narrative isn’t finished, hence why Héctor Bellerín’s podcasts have been quite refreshing, focusing on more of the personality and off pitch persona than the star quality. As I mentioned when you focus A documentary on a team/club there’s a base, a clear preceding chapter and a narrative in place that is more dynamic than the possible exploits of a single individual and such is a bit more compelling. I’m wary to say it’s much of a detriment however as when I think more about the topic, it becomes a double-edged sword. As I said earlier, it does dedicate episodes, or at times large portions of the run times to major periods of success and even borderline failure in the history of the club and for as much as they are deserving of a far deeper investigation, I was left with a satisfaction by the closing of the fourth and currently final episode - I felt as though I’d learned a lot on the clubs history and it’s many peaks and troughs which vindicates my watch. By baring the socio-economic roots of the club and showing their perennial underdog status, this ‘cinderella story’ is successful in playing on the heartstrings of all fans, it proudly shows the working class roots of Dortmund, charts a brief period of major uncertainty where they neared bankruptcy after failing to balance salaries of stars such as Tomáš Rosicky and how those plucky underdogs bounced back to near Champions League glory - the show felt at times, a little disjointed. The series can’t settle on its presentation - the background stories are spliced in whenever, which at times makes for awkwardness in understanding but the jump does slightly tarnish the overall quality, at times its as if the 18/19 season is almost a background character and it’s dealings with the 2017 terror attack makes that event seem like a work of fiction, there is little player/staff testimony on the event and the effects, the events covered in such speed it doesn’t really do it’s due diligence or treat the attack with any sensitivity. In all its just a poorly constructed timeline and sort of contradicts with what it’s covering in the here and now.

Positives do however outweigh the bad. One thing so likeable about Dortmund is their identity and personality, on both a club and individual level. A team who accepted they couldn’t really compete with Bayern/the European elite and so adopted this ‘factory chain’ approach to football. It was nice to learn about how and why the club had to employ this philosophy and the talking heads give a strong sense of a club that treats its players well, demands maximum effort and is willing to afford game time to exceptional talent. If you need more evidence then look no further than the emergence of Gio Reyna who made 15 appearances in 19/20, Erling Håland who scored a ridiculous amount of goals in all competitions in the 19/20 season and the acquisition of Jude Bellingham in the current off season summer window. One leaves the series with a better sense of the organic structure of the club and can see how sustainable their model of business and football is, enriching personal knowledge as you watch along, entertained, the mark of a stellar documentary. Aside from that though, the players themselves have many an interesting story, be that Jadon Sancho, a teenager at the point of filming who really left his mark on global football, injury blighted tale of Captain Marco Reus and his loyalty to the Black and Yellow, Roman Bürki’s leadership or the Bayern love affairs by Mats Hummels and Mario Götze, there’s a strong sense of character and squad hierarchy and you can see how their ideologies manifest on the pitch. That’s another positive as well, though not quite ok the level of Amazon’s Manchester City’s documentary there’s a good insight into the behind the scenes: injury rehab, tactical breakdowns, training, transfers etc. If you’re a fan of the sport, it’s an invitation into a world we don’t often see a lot of, especially if you follow some of the more elite clubs the game has to offer.

It’s worth noting how Prime Video have been at the vanguard of revolutionising the sport documentary. Facilitating the ‘All or Nothing’ brand, the platform has attained a major insight into some of the biggest teams in a number of different sports the world over and has sparked a renaissance at other outlets such as Netflix. With Prime’s opposing platform serving up: Last Chance U, The Last Dance & First Team Juventus which adopt in some form, the ‘fly on the wall’ approach which has been welcomed by consumers. The structure, as I highlighted, offers a lot to a fan of a team/sport/club and it’s known for often producing really high standard content as it platforms the major players and characters involved the sporting success and if you’re after a short bit of such filmmaking the look at B/R football‘s one off ‘Deadline day‘ documentary with Chris Wilder and Sheffield United. Though Inside Borussia Dortmund could have been a lot more in depth, the varied testimony on offer was a really welcoming and exceptional watch.

Ultimately the show does serve a bit of a niche, after all sport is a required taste. However if football can be counted amongst one’s interests then this is perfect. A promising first chapter into what should be an even better and far more eventful second season, Inside Borussia Dortmund is such a rich and deep football docu-series and is one I’d highly recommend to anyone interested in the inner workings of one of football’s finest clubs.