Watermarks (2004)

hyped garbage

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It was Holocaust Education Week here in south western Ontario, and my mother and I, gentiles with a strong love for the Jewish people, set out to the Princess Theatre to view the movie Watermarks. It demonstrated a raw beauty, that moved me to tears, made me laugh, and inspired me at the same time. It was impossible to watch this documentary and not be wrapped up in emotion, and easily develop an attachment to any one of the Hakoah swimmers and divers, who were now well into their eighties and making their way back to Austria from various places around the world in order to team once again for a dip into the pool. It is a story of love, respect, and survival amid painful and joyful memories. It taught much; the cinematography and research is first class, and I came home to tell my own children about the movie. Truly inspiring. Beautifully portrayed.

I had the pleasure of seeing this film at the Nashville Film Fesitval. This documentary tells the story of a special reunion of six members of the Hakoah Vienna, a girl's swim team that broke athletic records in the 1930s as Hitler came to power.These ladies all have distinct personalities that come shining through as the story unfolds. There is laughter shared amid sadder memories. One of the swimmers was invited to represent Austria in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games but refused as a statement of her stance against Nazism. As a result, she was never allowed to compete again and had her awards taken away. The director lets the story tell itself as the friends go back in time to their youth, when their faith made them visible targets. While much has changed, some things have not. It is an inspiring, thoughtful story worth telling.

Watermarks is a very interesting and touching movie, about a group of 6 Jewish women swimmers who were part of Hakoach Vienna - a Jewish sport club in Vienna,before world war two. The director did a superb job in creating contact and sensitively interviewing these women, now in their eighties. Through the stories of Hacoach and the Jewish swimmers, the history of the Jewish community in Vienna, antisemitism and world war two, unfold. I enjoyed and was deeply touched by the movie, and by the personalities of the swimmers.

"Watermarks" tells the story of 7 women, now in their 80's, which were champion swimmers at the legendary Austrian sports club Hakoach Vienna in the 1930's. The movie includes interviews with the ladies at their current homes in England, Israel and the USA and follows them as they go back to a reunion in Vienna in the old sports club.It is a touching movie that opens a door to the amazing story of these brave women and to the era it took place in. The combination of a fascinating personal account and the unique cinematography on the background of one of the most horrible times of human history makes it a movie that is moving educational and enjoyable.