Born in the same city in Colombia with the same last name, Andres Escobar and Pablo Escobar shared a fanatical childhood love for soccer. Andres grew up to become one of Colombia's most beloved players, while Pablo rose through the ranks of the criminal underground to become not only the most notorious drug baron of all time, but also arguably the secret weapon responsible for Colombian soccer's unprecedented rise to glory. Soccer was the vehicle for Colombia to transform its image on the international stage. But after their shocking early elimination from the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the mysterious murder of Andres Escobar dashed the hopes of a nation. Fifteen years later, The Two Escobars investigates the secret marriage of crime and sport, and uncovers the surprising connections between the murders of Andres and Pablo.

Personal Statement

My films tend to focus on disenfranchised communities in the process of rising up and transforming their political and economic circumstances. I’ve chosen these stories due to the scale of their historic importance—this is where societies are shaped.

By comparison, sports have often felt like mere diversion, games limited to the playing field. At times, I have drifted far from the passion for sports I had as a young athlete and fan, and I have grown disinterested as seasons of professional competition pass me by.

Then, invariably, definitive moments in sports history grab my attention and turn my logic upside down. Like in 1994, when an athlete named Andrés Escobar was murdered for accidentally scoring an auto-goal that cost his Colombian national soccer team a chance at the World Cup. Here was a country with a national identity so integrally connected to the success of its soccer team that one mistake on a playing field dashed the pride of an entire society and cost a man his life. Looking into the incident, I learned that the dramatic rise and fall of Colombian soccer was inextricably tied to the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Drug Cartel, considered by many the ‘ruling party’ of Colombia at the time.

Here, sports was not only mirroring the personality and politics of society, it was also an inseparable part of society, the playing field an extension of the streets and offices where influential decisions are made. Stories such as this revive my childhood passion and confirm the profound importance of sports in shaping our world.

When ESPN approached me with the concept for its 30-for-30 series, the story of the two Escobars called to me from the archives. I hope that by giving it life, this story moves others as deeply as it moved me.

Jeff Zimbalist Bio

Jeff is an Emmy Award nominated writer, director and editor whose films have been broadcast on HBO, Cinemax, PBS, Channel 4 in the U.K., the BBC, Current TV, and BET, as well as theatrically distributed throughout North America, Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. Jeff’s work has been featured at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Mass., the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. “Favela Rising,” which he wrote, directed, shot, edited and produced, was short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 2005. Among the 36 international awards it has won are Film of the Year by the International Documentary Association, Best Film at the Sydney International Film Festival and Leeds International Film Festival, as well as Best Director at the Tribeca Film Festival. “Favela Rising” was theatrically exhibited on five continents, held over in theaters in the United Kingdom for six months, and theatrically released by ThinkFilm and HBO in 34 cities in North America. “Favela Rising” was also nominated for a 2007 Emmy Award. Jeff teaches at the New York Film Academy and the Maine Photographic Workshops. He has produced educational and promotional films for clients throughout the United States, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, as well as provided media consulting services to the United Nations Development Program’s South Asian Poverty Alleviation Project and various international non-profit service organizations. Most recently, Jeff completed a six-continent development documentary for the infoDev pilot branch of the World Bank Group on creating employment opportunity in the underdeveloped world and a feature documentary following an entrepreneurship competition in Africa for Legatum Global Capital Group. Jeff is a Massachusetts State Cultural Council Fellow, a 2006 Ford Foundation grantee, and 2008 LEF Foundation grantee. Jeff is currently working on a narrative feature telling the story of a Colombian Peace Community that he wrote and will direct with his brother, Michael Zimbalist and is being produced by Frida Torresblanco (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Crónicas,” “Assassination of Richard Nixon”). Jeff is developing a 3D IMAX film on Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro with Quincy Jones and Brett Ratner and he is also directing a series for the Sundance Channel. Jeff’s segment on “The Addiction Project”, HBO’s 14-part series on drug abuse, premiered in 2007. Jeff graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with honors in Art Semiotics and Modern Culture and Media, and a concentration on Latin American Studies.