When The Boat Goes Down

Captain Ludger Dochterman (70), running away from the memories of his father who abandoned him immediately after World War II and his stepfather who sexually abused him, leaves his native Germany for Alaska and becomes a fisherman. Today he is a millionaire, owning ships, properties in California, Seattle and Kodiak (Alaska), and has four children by two wives. He was a happy and diligent man all until his 53rd year when he found out that his father Hans Dochterman, a German air force commander, was directly responsible for one of the greatest atrocities in World War II. Flying his plane, Hans Dochterman sunk the English troopship HMT Rohna, destroying it with the first glide bomb. The ship sank and carried with her the lives of 1150 young soldiers, mainly Americans. He, who today considers America his homeland, after discovering the military secret about the sinking, well-kept over 60 years, had to carry a terrible weight on his shoulders from which he has never recovered. So he kept sailing, more and more, further and further away. Many say he is crazy. Many say he is eccentric. Still, everyone loves this feisty athlete and his crazy smile. He could live at luxurious resorts, but instead he challenges the sea because of the burden he carries. Death of Alaskan fishermen is a frequent phenomenon. The captain lost 33 of his close friends. Sometimes, after a few shots of rum, he comes out to the deck and shoots the sea. But the sea never fires back!
When the Boat Goes Down is a film portraying the eccentric captain whose life was marked by two shipwrecks, one during WWII, and the other, visible only in the captain’s eye pupil, lasting until this day.