WATERMARKS — ** 1/2 — Documentary feature about the Hakoah Vienna sports club's champion women swimmers; with English subtitles; not rated, probable PG (ethnic slurs, adult themes).
The best moments of "Watermarks"come with seven of the surviving members of the Hakoah Vienna women's swim team reliving their experiences at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games.
That's pretty much all this documentary really needs to do to hold our interest, yet filmmaker Yaron Zilberman does his best to ruin it.
Among Zilberman's bigger mistakes are cutting away from the interviews with the women to show scenes of dog walking, sunsets and other distractions that don't have much to do with their stories. Also, there's very little in the way of archival footage, which might have been unavailable — but if that's the case, an explanation would have been nice.
That the film is watchable is largely due to the women, any of whom could have been the subject of a better, considerably more focused film.
Hakoah Vienna, an Austrian sports club, was formed around the turn of the 20th century to give Jewish athletes a chance to compete in Europe (Hakoah is a Hebrew word for strength). However, despite their various triumphs in local competitions, the athletes discovered that their lives were at risk when their country was annexed into Germany in 1938, so they were forced to flee their homeland.
"Watermarks" catches up with the seven women today; they are now in their 80s and 90s. Zilberman and his producers also held a reunion for the longtime friends, though the film takes its time getting to that point.
Nearly an hour is taken up by a history lesson of Hakoah Vienna and pre-World War II Europe, but even that gets away from Zilberman, who can't stick to one subject for very long.
The interview subjects deserve more uninterrupted screen time — in particular, Nanne Selinger, who lived in Vienna after the war and never really gets to say much about it.
"Watermarks" is not rated but would probably receive a PG for use of ethnic slurs, as well as some discussion of and references to some adult subject matter (including the Holocaust). Running time: 77 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com