Emotional new documentary on the late Pau Donés a ‘reflection of fear’ and ‘invitation to live’

The new documentary on the late musician Pau Donés, described as a “roller coaster” of intensities, premieres on Wednesday. The artist passed away in June at the age of 53 from colon cancer, and spent his life as one of the most legendary Catalan singers before becoming an inspirational figure in the fight against the disease. 

Named after one of Donés’s songs with his band Jarabe de Palo, the film ‘Eso que tú me das’ (‘That which you give me’) is based around one of the last conversations between the artist and journalist Jordi Évole, who knew each other intimately.

The work is an intensely emotional reflection on life, born out of Donés’s fatal cancer diagnosis earlier in 2020. The singer called his friend Évole and explained to him that he had very few days in this world remaining and that he wanted to spend them at his house in Vall d’Aran, in the western Pyrenees. 

“I’d like for you to come up here, we can have a chat, you can record it and do whatever you like with it,” Donés said to his friend. The resulting work is this documentary that not only evokes tears but smiles too. “We wouldn’t have allowed ourselves to make a morbid documentary,” said Évole.

Speaking at a screening of the film for family and friends of Donés, press, and medical teams, Évole remarked that the whole experience remains "with a reflection on fear," but at the same time his conversation with his deceased friend has left him also with a "constant invitation to live." 

He also admitted that he and Pau Donés cried during the conversation. “We had cried during the process and the day he called me," Évole said. 

"It helped me deal with grief"

On the act of making the film, Évole said: "It helped me deal with grief, it helped me have a different summer, to see things from a different perspective." 

The journalist also confessed that the documentary has had a meaningful impact on his day-to-day life. "Until now I was all-action, and after it, I didn't stop the action but I tend to reflect more. I think the film can help everyone to reflect,” Évole posed. He went on to say that this project has given him great lessons to keep during bad days.

Asked about death, he said: "I was more aware that it is there and that it is a factor that surrounds us," and praised the musician's "serene" way of dealing with facing his own mortality, and becoming "an example for everyone.” 

The journalist remarked that it is necessary to "be aware that death is there," and that "just as there is a birth, there is a dying, and a transition to death like that of pregnancy."

Life and legacy of Pau Donés

The leader of the rock band Jarabe de Palo died at 53 in June. He had suffered from colon cancer since 2015 and, while he announced he had no trace of the illness in 2016, Donés's cancer returned in 2017.

Due to the disease, he announced he would stop playing indefinitely in 2018, but the following year, he was already working on his new album 'Tragas o Escupes,' which was released on May 27, 2020, barely two weeks before he passed away. 

Ever since Donés announced he was going through cancer in 2015 at 48, he became an inspirational figure in Catalonia and Spain in the fight against the disease.

He performed in two concerts to raise funds for cancer research in December 2019. 

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency, also in December last year, he spoke about his new life in California, where he moved after announcing he would stop playing. 

Donés explained he was spending more time with his daughter, doing salsa classes, and surfing. 

"Life is not only music. I used to live for music and for the other things. And what was I doing for my home? Earning money in order to pay bills," he said. 

"The future does not exist for me, and I live very well without a plan for the future and expectations of those plans." 

"Surviving the disease gives you a certain experience, and this is always an element of control, in the sense that you can measure your state of mind and your fears, and live with a certain calm," he also said in the interview. 

Donés also talked about 'Humo' (2017), one of his darkest songs. "It was a very one-off song, but I could also write it now, because either you want it or not, cancer patients are not close to death, it is above us. It is an illness that can kill you, and can awaken any day."