Passage

During the 18 months he was a prisoner in Dachau, Arne Brun Lie often dreamt of freedom on the ocean. In the 40 years following his ordeal, he enjoyed that freedom in his custom-built sailboat "Tresbelle." At the age of 65, after a heart attack and bypass surgery, Arne decided to try a new challenge--the Two-Star Race, a two-person TransAtlantic race covering some 3,000 miles from Plymouth, England to Newport, Rhode Island. Passage is the story of that journey...and more. Interwoven with the footage of Arne and his racing mate, filmmaker David Conover, battling the heavy swells or waiting out the periods of dead calm, is footage of a different journey: the one Arne took retracing his steps from Oslo, Norway to Dachau. Captured as a resistance fighter by the Nazi's at the age of 19, Arne watched his friends being taken off for execution, his life spared through an administrative goof. Later, he was shipped to Germany, where at Natzweiler, a Nazi guard told him cryptically: "The only way you get out of this camp is through that chimney." There was another way: a one-way trip to Dachau, and that is the way that Arne got out. Passage is more than just the record of a man sailing the sea, it is several journeys: across the water, across time, and across one's soul. Even with the excitement of a broken rudder, a ticking clock, and a shattered mast, it is not the journey across water that stays with you. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: New Film Company, 7 Mystic St., Suite 22, Arlington, MA 02174; (617) 641-2580.)