Once Brothers

2010 "Dreams brought them together. Reality tore them apart."
8.5| 1h19m| en| More Info
Released: 12 October 2010 Released
Producted By: NBA Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://30for30.espn.com/film/once-brothers.html
Synopsis

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.

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Cast

Larry Bird

Director

Producted By

NBA Entertainment

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Reviews

RyothChatty ridiculous rating
BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
chaos-rampant I saw this at a friend's house last week, prompted by memories of these people. It's a touching story about a common dream, the journey of unexpected adventure that takes you from a small Yugoslav city to the place of dreams, and how that dream was marred and grew sour when their country was torn apart, another common dream that was broken up.If journeys are not so much about where you finally end up but the transition from one life to the next, if looking back at the things that made the heart grow fond we find not attaining some goal as much as measuring yourself up against it and riding towards it, inhabiting all this sense of moving along, this is purely about a journey.It captured me by way of a sense I'm deeply attuned to; that the world is full of possible lives to explore, directly or vicariously through a camera, that there is no telling how these lives will pan out and the thrill all in setting out to see.
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.
Michael Winters The biggest problem of this film is that is completely one-sided. While Vlade Divac is very much alive, Drazen Petrvic is very much dead, so we hear only one side of the coin. Divac, who appears as a friendly, jovial guy was indeed someone who mocked Petrovic's country and did throw the Croatian flag to the ground, and in a Lakers/Nets game did foul Petrovic in anger. So, now, 20 years later it's easy going down memory lane without admitting any guilt. Is he pretending to wonder what happened or is this a genuine blindness to one's own appalling behavior. Furthermore, the film doesn't present the political situation in a hysterically accurate way. The violence and breakup of Yugoslavia where masterminded by Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic in his quest for greater Serbia. Divac never acknowledges that...he simply regrets the war. If he was truly a great man, he would have apologized for his behavior and admitted shame for the behavior of his country.
Nishanth Ponniah I learned a lot in this movie, not only about the lives of Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac, but also of the political situation in the nation formerly known as Yugoslavia. I have always known who Drazen Petrovic was, but never to this extent. He has a work ethic that is comparable to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and he is arguably the best European player of all time in terms of talent. I especially love how the production crew went to Vlade Divac's hometown and involved other players from the Yugoslavia team, including Toni Kukoc. Their path and successes in the NBA is the icing on the cake. A must watch for any NBA fan or a fan of sports in general.