U-Boat

In 1990 when Detective Inspector Miller arrives in a remote rural New Zealand village to investigate the identity of a man’s body buried for forty five years he has no idea he will be uncovering far more than the identity of the body.

Fifty years earlier in 1944, in the dead of night, a German U-Boat surfaces off the coast of New Zealand. The crew gaze in amazement at the shoreline… It’s lit up like a Christmas tree! A raiding party go ashore and forage for fresh food and milk from a farmyard. Replenished and eager for ships to sink they head to sea.  

Their pleasure quickly turns to despair when they are attacked and crippled by a New Zealand Navy destroyer. With no hope of reaching their base in the Japanese occupied Dutch East Indies and hunted by the Navy and Air force they are forced to hide in a remote New Zealand creek. 

Led by First officer Rolf Olbertz they pass themselves off as members of the Dutch Navy and visit a small rural village in their quest for repair materials. Olbertz meets Tui, a beautiful Maori girl. As their relationship deepens to a love affair, Tui has no idea Olbertz is the enemy. In fact the question of who actually is the real enemy will re-surface many times in both parallel story. 

In 1990 as Miller battles the wall of silence thrown up by the locals about anything to do with the mysterious dead body he too finds himself falling in love with one of the enemy, Susan Green, the owner of the village pub. 

The German sailors all have to deal with the sudden unreality of being ashore in an enemy country that seems like paradise after their five years of bitter warfare in a submarine.  

The Captain, the only surviving U-Boat Captain from the beginning of the war, struggles with his own private demons leaving the responsibility of the repairs and their escape to Olbertz. 

They are unmasked as Germans after a fight with locals and, while being pursued by armed villagers during a fierce storm, are forced to make a choice between saving a local girl from drowning in a flooded river or being captured. They save the girl but one of the German crew is swept to his death as they narrowly evade capture. Their race back to the concealed U-Boat leads the villagers to the boat where an armed stand off climaxes with the eventual departure of the submarine but not everybody is aboard……….. 

Later in 1990 Miller eventually breaks down the walls of silence, he uncovers the whole amazing story and finds love amongst the enemy.

Writer: 

Director:       TBA

Status:         Script Available

Budget:        AUD $5-6 million

Production:   2009

Australian/German co-production