Oberwasser -- By U-boat to America

Like the vessel in the title, Wolfram R. Bauer's documentary is an efficient, well-crafted vehicle as long as you overlook the subject's lethal past and purpose. In 1997, for the first time since World War II, a German submarine docked in New York, and the film logs thoroughly and intensely the historical four-month expedition of the S-175 from Kiel to its American destination. Bauer subtly touches on such issues as the post-war relationship between Germany and the United States, Germany's current self-image, the problems of unification, and questions about the new nation's future. Yet in celebrating the accomplishment of this transatlantic voyage, the director makes little mention of the U-boats' legacy of violence, from torpedoing passenger ships to sinking Allied vessels, during World War II. Screens at the Copley Place Wednesday, September 16 at 7 and 9:15 p.m. and Thursday, September 17 at 10:45 a.m. and 12:45 and 3 p.m.

-- Nicholas Patterson

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Film Festival Feature Films

| With Friends like These | Digging to China | Monument Ave. | Rounders | Lolita | God Said, 'Ha!' | My Son the Fanatic | The Mighty | Shattered Image | Gods and Monsters | Xui Xui: The Sent-Down Girl | Without Limits | Clubland | The Inheritors | The Celebration | Urban Ghost Story | The Boys | Living Out Loud | Stuart Bliss | The General | The Kindness of Strangers | Dancing at Lughnasa | Central Station | The Human Race | Double You Street | Oberwasser -- By U-boat to America | The Witman Boys | The Cruise | Confession of a Sexist Pig | Melting Pot |

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