Once Brothers
Once Brothers
| 12 October 2010 (USA)
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Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac were two friends who grew up together sharing the common bond of basketball. Together, they lifted the Yugoslavian National team to unimaginable heights. After conquering Europe, they both went to USA where they became the first two foreign players to attain NBA stardom. But with the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991, Yugoslavia split up. A war broke out between Petrovic's Croatia and Divac's Serbia. Long buried ethnic tensions surfaced. And these two men, once brothers, were now on opposite sides of a deadly civil war. As Petrovic and Divac continued to face each other on the basketball courts of the NBA, no words passed between the two. Then, on the fateful night of June 7, 1993, Drazen Petrovic was killed in an auto accident. This film will tell the gripping tale of these men, how circumstances beyond their control tore them apart, and whether Divac has ever come to terms with the death of a friend before they had a chance to reconcile.

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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CommentsXp

Best movie ever!

GarnettTeenage

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

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filippaberry84

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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woodandy81

MICHAEL WINTERS -- How can anybody take your review seriously with that kind of atrocious spelling! It is, however, in keeping with your general lack of knowledge of this period. Having had the pleasure of spending time interviewing Dino Radja during his time with the Celtics, and learning more about the political climate, as well as Vlade's outlook, I'm happy to conclude that you are wrong on all fronts. By all accounts, Divac was remorseful both at the time, and in the aftermath, and I'm not buying into your bluster about laying hard fouls on Drazen. The rest of the Croatian players - Kukoc in particular - have nothing to gain by attaching their name to the documentary if they felt it was disingenuous. Kudos to ESPN for looking outside of the usual headlines in this - and other - 30 for 30's.

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MartinHafer

horribly sad ending DON'T show they doing CPR on the corpse!I've seen quite a few of the films from the "30 for 30" series from ESPN and must say that "Once Brothers" might be the best film among them. However, I warn you that you might want to keep a Kleenex handy, as this is a pretty sad one.The show is about the rise and fall of the Yugoslavian basketball program in the 1980s and 90s. It's hard to believe now, but at one point, they were among the best teams in the world--a real powerhouse. In fact, the team was so good that the NBA took notice--and drafted some of the top Yugoslavian players--including Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc and Drazen Petrovic. The story then becomes more interesting when the Iron Curtain falls--and Yugoslavia starts to disintegrate due to ethnic and religious divisions that have been simmering for centuries. Once friends, Divac and Petrovic would not even talk after that, though they had been best friends. Divac had offended Petrovic and the gulf between them was enormous. Then, the story takes an even darker turn.If you want drama, then this is for you! Just don't expect a happy ending--which makes sense, as well over 100,000 died during the civil war in Yugoslavia. A sad, horrible time...and a really gripping show.

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bob the moo

Within sports there will always be stories – the season where the team came back from nowhere to win the title, the season where the team didn't lose a single game and so on, and to a certain degree these stories are captured forever in the stats. However within any season or match there will always be specifics and it is these that are the things people tell each other about in pubs and often this oral history is the main way these stories remain. This is why i have enjoyed many of these ESPN film because they do a good job of looking at the smaller stories behind the sports. With Once Brothers the film offered me the appeal of knowing the people involved but yet not knowing the story.It was the mid-90's when I started playing and watching basketball and I such I of course came to know the names of the European players such as Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc and others because they were excellent players, however by the time they entered my sphere of knowledge, the story of this film had happened already. And so it was I watched the film without knowing what happened to Drazen Petrovic or, at one point, quite what story I was being told. For the first half of the film we are filled in on the history of the young Yugoslavian team and how some of the stars from there came to the NBA. The story starts to focus on Divac (who has been our presenter and narrator) and his friend Petrovic, showing the early NBA careers of both – with Petrovic in particular capable of more than Portland was offering him.When the war breaks out the film then follows the fracturing between Divac and the rest of the team – in particular the death of the friendship with Petrovic and the importance of one interaction with a flag after a European match. This thread is followed until the tragic end to the story. The telling is really good throughout and the focus on Divac is a strength because he has a great warmth and is natural in front of camera – he may or may not be incredibly wealthy but he certainly doesn't come over like a spoilt sports star. His narration and his honesty makes the film compelling and, in addition to the details, it is quite moving. The presentation does add some stuff that the facts don't need – for example the sad music played over war footage felt like it was overegging it for no reason. Mostly though it is bang on the money; it shows some great footage from the Nets with Petrovic showing his quality against Michael Jordan and it makes the civil war in Yugoslavia easy to understand. The access to the players and the families is good and it really puts a human face on the story and it is sad that the two men never had a chance to come together having be torn apart by arbitrary political lines on a map.Well presented, engaging, moving and informative; this is a great film that tells a sports story I never knew – it benefits greatly from the warm honesty of Divac as presenter and subject.

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ccthemovieman-1

This was another sad-but-memorable episode in this series, a haunting one about the friendship and alienation between two great pro basketball players from Eastern Europe. Vlade Divic tells the story of he and his former best friend Drazen Petrovic, and what happened to that friendship. It's really sad.Yes, it's only told from Divac's side, but he comes across as an honest man. Maybe I'm naive, but I believed him.I don't want to give anything else away but this episode will tug at your heartstrings. It's a shame politics divides so many people.It's a bleak tale, but absolutely riveting.

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