We had an open slot, so I figured if I was stuck filling it I’d go with one of my long-term dream pairings. Now, I don’t want to pose myself as some sort of expert, or even…erm…aficianado?…of the Yugoslav Civil Wars, but I feel like when you have a chance to examine a topic like that from two very different points of view, it’s probably worth it.
The first point of view was from the inside – Bill Carter’s 1995 short film Miss Sarajevo.
Miss Sarajevo is perhaps best known as the film for which the famous eponymous U2 (and Pavarotti) song was written. In fact, the film itself was funded by Bono after Carter tracked him down to pitch it. In short, Miss Sarajevo is a glimpse into the lives of ordinary citizens in Sarajevo during the the height of the siege of the city – known as the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare – as they attempt to carry out their own lives. The film doesn’t really pull any punches. It starts with footage that was filmed while the building the camera crew was in was being shelled, and not only does it follow the dangerous trips that some teenage girls take to get to and from their intermittent school, but it also shows scenes of active warfare and bodies – none more touching than a man holding his deceased child. At the same time, it also portrays the resilience of the citizens as they push through with their lives in the face of their desperate situation. A ramshackle orchestra practices Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, a spunky pre-teen girl hams it up with her friends and steals the show, and, of course, there is the famous beauty contest held in the midst of the bombing. There’s no narrative, but it’s a compelling – and pretty rare – look inside a modern city under siege.
The second point of view is from the outside, and it traces the effects of the Yugoslav Civil Wars on some of the most fortunate members of that society – the players on the Yugoslavian National Basketball Team. The film is Once Brothers, produced in 2010 for ESPN by Michael Tolajian.
The film opens with some archival interview footage of Drazen Petrovic where he implies that his friendship with former national squad teammate Vlade Divac has ended.
The film then steps to the present (well, 2010), where Vlade Divac sets the stage – he is taking a short journey through the former Yugoslavia to revisit his past so that he can tell his sons about the days of his youth. As he travels to visit his home town in Serbia and we hear interviews with teammates like Dino Radja and Toni Kukoc, Vlade recounts how he joined the up-and-coming Yugoslav team and struck up a friendship with perhaps the best player in Europe – the Croatian Drazen Petrovic. We hear about the successes of the team, including their silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. We also hear about how Petrovic and Divac both decided to go to the NBA during the 1989-90 season, and how despite being on different teams they helped each other through the difficult transition to NBA basketball.
But war was on the horizon. The Yugoslav Civil War was to go hot during their second year in the NBA, with Slovenia cleanly breaking away from Yugoslavia, and then Croatia, leading to a decade-long combat between the various Balkan states.
The summer before the onset of open hostilities, tempers flared at the 1990 FIBA World Championship when Vlade, in attempt to promote Yugoslavian unity, tore away what he perceived as a divisive Croatian national flag from a fan who had approached the court to celebrate the Yugoslavian team’s victory in the championship game. Petrovic saw this as a Serbian making an anti-Croatian statement, and he ended the friendship abruptly.
Divac always hoped to patch up his friendship with Petrovic over time, but just as Petrovic reached the pinnacle of NBA stardom, he was tragically killed in an automobile accident in Europe in 1993. Divac not only never had the chance to reconcile with his friend, but he was also unable to attend the funeral in Croatia due to the active shooting war between that country and his homeland of Serbia.
But now, about ten years after the end of the wars, Vlade ends his journey in Croatia’s capital of Zagreb, visiting Drazen’s mother and brother and finally Petrovic’s grave, where he places a photo of the two of them embracing in joy at the 1990 World Championships – perhaps taken only moments before the incident that separated them forever.
Cinema 1544: The As-Official-As-It-Gets Site 