The Counterfeiters
by Stefan Ruzowitzky
List Price:
Our Price: $19.99
You Save: $8.97 (31%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $1.98 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: August Diehl, August Zirner, Devid Striesow, Karl Markovics, Martin BrambachDirector: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: German (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Counterfeiters
Movie Review: The Counterfeiters
Summary: 4 Stars
This was an excellent movie but would have been more interesting to me if they hadn't added the fictional hollywood type stuff.
Summary of The Counterfeiters
Winner of the Academy Award? for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters tells the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a swindler who made a name for himself as Berlin's "King of the Counterfeiters." However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he's arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. With the German army on the verge of bankruptcy, Sorowitsch makes a sobering deal with his captors: in exchange for a comfortable bed, good food and fair treatment, Sorowitsch, along with the other hand-picked specialists, must counterfeit bank notes to fund the Nazi War effort. If he does as they say, he lives another day. If he rebels, he faces the same fate as the rest of the camp's prisoners. But if he lives, will he be able to live with himself?A deft blend of suspense and docudrama, Stefan Ruzowitzky's sixth feature focuses on history's largest counterfeiting operation. Before World War II breaks out, Salomon Sorowitsch (the compact yet steely Karl Markovics), a Russian-born Jew, lives the good life in Berlin. He forges documents, like passports and banknotes, and sketches beautiful women to the romantic strains of tango records. Sorowitsch's dolce vita comes to an end when he's sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. Once Reich officials decide to deploy imprisoned printers, craftsmen, and bank officials to counterfeit foreign currency, they draft Sorowitsch for "Operation Bernhard" and ship him to Sachsenhausen. Though he and his colleagues receive preferential treatment, the threat of execution hangs over their heads at all times. First, they master the pound; then they tackle the American dollar. At this point, communist co-worker Adolf Burger (The Ninth Day's excellent August Diehl) suggests sabotage. As he explains, they're extending the conflict and increasing the death toll, but the entire team will suffer if they fail, even their SS supervisor, Freidrich Herzog (Downfall's Devid Striesow), whose career depends on it. As Jews, however, they stand to lose more than their jobs. Based on Burger's book The Devil's Workshop, Austria's Ruzowitzky (Anatomy) sheds a compassionate light on the guilt and complicity of survivors. Though The Counterfeiters plays more like a prison camp movie than a Holocaust drama--Stalag 17 comes to mind--that doesn't make it any less significant, just less wrenching than some of its counterparts. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from The Counterfeiters (click for larger image)
 | 
|  |
|  |  |
|  |  |
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Foreign Films for Beginners
Shall We Dance?Release date: 2005-02-01; DVD
Best price: $4.76
Price in other shops:
The CounterfeitersSony; Release date: 2008-08-05; DVD
Best price: $11.50
Price in other shops:
Black BookSony; Release date: 2007-09-25; DVD
Best price: $7.38
Price in other shops:
Amores PerrosLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2001-09-25; DVD
Best price: $4.69
Price in other shops:
Run Lola RunSony; Release date: 1999-12-21; DVD
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops:
Women on the Verge of a Nervous BreakdownRelease date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $99.98
Children of HeavenRelease date: 2002-09-03; DVD
Best price: $8.77
Price in other shops:
AmelieTAUTOU,AUDREY; Release date: 2002-07-16; DVD
Best price: $11.16
Price in other shops:
Pan's LabyrinthWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-05-15; DVD
Best price: $2.21
Price in other shops:
Central StationSony; Release date: 1999-07-13; DVD
Best price: $12.72
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
MilkUniversal; Release date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $9.88
Price in other shops:
ChangelingUniversal; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $11.88
Price in other shops:
Burn After ReadingUniversal; Release date: 2008-12-21; DVD
Best price: $5.61
Price in other shops:
Vicky Cristina BarcelonaGenius; Release date: 2009-01-27; DVD
Best price: $10.32
Price in other shops:
Slumdog MillionaireTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $10.37
Price in other shops:
The Lives of OthersSony; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Band's VisitSony; Release date: 2008-07-29; DVD
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
In BrugesUNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.; Release date: 2008-06-24; DVD
Best price: $6.26
Price in other shops:
The VisitorRelease date: 2008-10-07; Published: 2008-01-01; DVD
Best price: $10.75
Price in other shops:
The Bank JobLions Gate; Release date: 2008-07-15; DVD
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops: