There was a wave of anti-Semitism in Vienna in the early 1900's, and many of the sports and country clubs banned Jewish people from becoming members.  In response, the Hakoah was started, an all Jewish sports club.  (Hakoah means 'strength' in Hebrew.)  They fielded several teams, but they were the strongest in swimming.  Their woman's swim team won meet after meet in the early 1930's.  When Hitler came to power and WWII started, the members of this fine swim team all emigrated to other countries.  Now, over 60 year later, film maker Yaron Zilberman reunites seven women who were on the Hakoah swim team.  Now living in all parts of the globe, he takes them back for a swim at the club they once all frequented.  Their reunion, and their stories, are told in the 2004 documentary Watermarks.

Their story is told through interviews with the octogenarian swimmers, vintage photos and a few old video clips.  The club's success, and way the members had to flee when Austria became part of the Third Reich is a very touching and inspirational.  It's hard not to be drawn to these women and the trials they've had to endure.  One of the ladies, Judith Deutsch, was even strong enough to be invited to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  She refused to attend, in a protest of Adolph Hitler's policies (the pool she would have competed in was labeled "No Dogs or Jews.") Because of this act of defiance, she was banned from competing in the sport, and was stripped of all her metals.

The most powerful part of the film though doesn't involve the women talking about the past, it happens when they are driving to the pool in modern day Vienna.  Greta, a diver, is chatting with her cab driver and telling him how much things have changed.  They start talking about the past, and her escape from the Nazis.  The cabbie comments that those were hard times for "non-natives."  Greta informs him that she was a native, both she and her parents were born in Vienna.  The driver replies "You weren't German, so to speak."  Greta just sits in shocked silence.

The film was very uplifting, especially when the women get to see each other for the first time in decades.  Ultimately though, there isn't a lot to the film.  It's clear that writer/director Zilberman feels much affection for the women he's documenting, but much of the movie consists of talking head shots of little old ladies chatting about old times.  It seems to skim over the surface of what was really happening to Jews in Europe back in the late 30's.  Even the incident with the cab driver is presented and then forgotten.   A noble attempt to move viewers, but at the end the film didn't succeed as well as it should have.

Audio:

This DVD offers both a stereo and 5.1 audio mix.  Both are satisfactory, though the music in the 5.1 mix is more forceful and sounds a bit better.  Since this is a documentary and the audio was recorded in less than optimal circumstances, there are some flaws.  The levels change a bit, and some scenes have a lot of background noise, but this isn't a big distraction.  Overall the audio fits the subject nicely.  There are optional subtitles in English and Spanish.

Video:

This film is presented with its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 intact.  The image is anamorphically enhanced, and looks pretty good.  Being a documentary, it does tend to look a little like a home movie in places.   The image is a bit soft and has a bit of a grainy look in places, but it looks fine overall.

One disappointing thing about the film is that the director stretched vintage full frame video in order to make it fit the widescreen ratio of the rest of the film.  This makes the people look short and fat of course, and isn't the way I would have handled the inclusion of 1.33:1 film.

Extras:

This disc also includes some nice extra material.  There are additional interviews with all of the ladies who were portrayed, which run for over 40 minutes.  Eight deleted scenes are also included, and these run nearly half an hour.  Finally there is a still gallery of both productions shots and vintage photos.  A very nice set of bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

This was a nice film that lacked the strength it should have had.  The women that are interviewed are all interesting ladies who have lived full lives and through some very tough times, but the film feels like a trip to your grandmothers rather than an examination of what occurred in Vienna in the late 1930's.  Still an enjoyable film that would make a good rental.