Which country produced the 1981 German-language submarine film Das Boot?

West Germany produced the 1981 German-language submarine film Das Boot.

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot is set aboard the German submarine U-96 during the Second World War’s Battle of the Atlantic. The film portrays the crew’s cramped living conditions, mechanical dangers, boredom, fear, and moral exhaustion rather than presenting submarine warfare as straightforward adventure.

The production was based partly on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s 1973 novel Das Boot. Buchheim had served as a war correspondent aboard a German submarine, although the film combines fictional characters and events. Jürgen Prochnow played the unnamed captain, while Herbert Grönemeyer portrayed the war correspondent known as Lieutenant Werner.

Das Boot was produced in West Germany before German reunification. Its original theatrical version was approximately two and a half hours long, and it was later expanded for television into a much longer miniseries. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Cinematography, an unusual level of international recognition for a German-language war film.