The Counterfeiters
by Stefan Ruzowitzky
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: August Diehl, August Zirner, Devid Striesow, Karl Markovics, Martin BrambachDirector: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Brand: MARKOVICS,KARL
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, 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: Ugly Anti-Hero; Death Camp; Holocaust -- this film has it all!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this film in a theatre and then knew I had to have it in my personal collection. While there are necessary moments of high seriousness and tragedy, basically we get to see a deeply flawed "hero" turn his criminal talents into a unifying, rallying effort to defeat the enemy and find his own kind of nobility at the same time. So what if he isn't a typical marquee idol, classically handsome and clearly wearing the white hat? He finds his own salvation and that of others (if not their own lives) by, first, trying to stay alive by cooperating with the enemy and, then -- growing more deeply conscious of his own humanity and that of others as well as the evil of his captors -- trying to take seemingly small actions that could not only save their lives but contribute to the larger issues of winning wars and defeating the enemies of mankind.
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)
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