In the 1920s, two German brothers, Adolf (Adi) and Rudolf (Rudi) Dassler, launched a sports shoe company in their small Bavarian village of Herzogenaurach. Both were avid athletes and competed against each other in everything – running, soccer, boxing, you name it. Adi was the engineering genius, forever inventing new design innovations, and older brother Rudi was the marketing genius, a huckster and born salesman. Together, the siblings turned the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory into a regional success, but both were ambitious and wanted more. The 1936 Berlin Olympics proved a turning point – but the advent of World War II further strained both the company and the brothers’ relationship.

Bringing the story to life are several performers whom viewers may recognize from other MHz Choice shows. Christoph, the boys’ father, is played by Joachim Król, who starred as Donna Leon’s Brunetti in the first four films of that series. Rudi’s wife, Friedl, is played by Hannah Herzsprung, who was equally memorable as Julia in the first two seasons of The Wiessensee Saga. And Adi’s wife, Käthe, is played by German-Ukrainian actress Alina Levshin, best-known to MHz Choice subscribers as Jelena in the gritty Berlin crime saga In The Face of Crime.

Production values are first-rate as the narrative flashes backwards and forwards in time, telling the Dassler brothers’ story from the 1920s straight through to the 1970s. Interspersed throughout is newsreel footage of actual events, from the 1936 Olympic Games to the 1974 World Cup, adding an extra layer of authenticity to the drama.

Rivals Forever now streaming only on MHz Choice.