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The story of the champion women swimmers of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah Vienna. Hakoah (meaning "Strength" in Hebrew) was founded in 1909 in response to the notorious Aryan Paragraph, which forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes. Its founders were eager to popularize sport among a community renowned for such great minds as Freud, Mahler and Zweig--but traditionally alien to physical recreation. Hakoah rapidly grew into one of Europe's biggest athletic clubs, while achieving astonishing success in many diverse sports. In the 1930s Hakoah's best-known triumphs came from its women swimmers, who dominated national competitions in Austria. After the Anschluss, in 1938, the Nazis shut down the club, but the swimmers all managed to flee the country before the war broke out, thanks to an escape operation. Sixty-five years later, director Yaron Zilberman meets the members of the swimming team in their homes around the world, and arranges for them to have a reunion in their old swimming pool in Vienna, a journey that evokes memories of youth, femininity, and strengthens lifelong bonds. Told by the swimmers, now in their eighties, the chronicle is about a group of young girls with a passion to be the best. It is the saga of seven outstanding athletes who still swim daily as they age with grace.
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| Production Status: |
Released |
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| Logline: |
swimming, Jewish, Austria, sports club |
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| Genres: |
Documentary |
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| Running Time: |
1 hr. 24 min. |
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| Release Date: |
January 21, 2005 NY |
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| MPAA Rating: |
Not Rated |
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| Distributors: |
Kino International
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| Production Co.: |
Osterreichischer Rundfunk Fernsehen (ORF), ARTE, Cinephil, Girls Club Film Project, HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films, Jetlag Productions , Keshet Broadcasting, Yofi Films, Zadig Films
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| U.S. Box Office: |
$245,845 |
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| Produced in: |
Israel |
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In Theaters 
