| The Counterfeiters | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Stefan Ruzowitzky |
| Written by | Stefan Ruzowitzky |
| Based on | The Devil's Workshop: A Memoir of the Nazi Counterfeiting Operation byAdolf Burger |
| Produced by | Josef Aichholzer [de] Nina Bohlmann [de] Babette Schröder [de] |
| Starring | Karl Markovics August Diehl Devid Striesow Marie Bäumer |
| Cinematography | Benedict Neuenfels [de] |
| Edited by | Britta Nahler [de] |
| Music by | Marius Ruhland [de] |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Filmladen [de] (Austria) Universum Film (Germany) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Countries | Austria Germany |
| Languages | German Russian English Hebrew |
| Budget | $6.25 million[1] |
| Box office | $20.2 million[1] |
The Counterfeiters (German:Die Fälscher) is a 2007 Austrian-Germandrama film written and directed byStefan Ruzowitzky. It fictionalizesOperation Bernhard, a secret plan byNazi Germany duringWorld War II to destabilize the United Kingdom by flooding its economy withforgedBank of Englandpound notes. The film centres on a Jewishcounterfeiter, Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch, who is coerced into assisting the operation at theSachsenhausen concentration camp.
The film is based on the 1983 Czech-languagememoirKomando padělatelů ("The Commando of Counterfeiters") byAdolf Burger, which was published in English asThe Devil's Workshop. Burger was a Jewish Slovak typographer who was imprisoned in 1942 for forging baptismal certificates to save Jews from deportation and was later interned at Sachsenhausen to work on Operation Bernhard.[2] Ruzowitzky consulted closely with Burger through almost every stage of the writing and production. The film won the 2007Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the80th Academy Awards.
The film begins shortly after the end of theSecond World War, with a man arriving inMonte Carlo. After checking into an expensive hotel and paying with cash, he takes in the high life of Monte Carlo, successfully gambling in acasino and attracting the attention of a beautiful French woman. Later, she discoverstattooed numerals on his arm, revealing him as a survivor of theNazi concentration camps.
The film then flashes back to Berlin in 1936, where the man,Salomon Sorowitsch, is revealed as a successfulforger of currency andpassports. Caught by the police, he is imprisoned, first in alabour camp, then inMauthausen concentration camp nearLinz. In an effort to secure himself protection and meagre comforts at the camp, he turns his forging skills to portraiture, attracting the attention of the guards, who commission him to paint them and their families in exchange for extra food rations.
Sorowitsch's talents bring him wider attention, and he is transferred out of the concentration camp. Brought in front of the police officer who arrested him in Berlin, he finds himself put together with other prisoners with artistic or printing talents and begins working in a special section of theSachsenhausen concentration camp devoted to forgery. The counterfeiters are kept in relatively humane conditions, with comfortable bunks, a washroom and adequate food, although their guards continue to subject them to brutality and insults. His fellow prisoners have a range of backgrounds from Jewish bank managers to political agitators, and while some are content to work for the Nazis to avoid theextermination camps, others see their efforts as supporting the German war effort.
At first, self-preservation appears to guide Sorowitsch, but his motives for forging for the Nazis are complicated by his growing concern for his fellow prisoners, his awareness of their role in the wider war against the Nazis, and his professional pride in counterfeiting the US dollar, a currency he was previously unable to forge.
Sorowitsch juggles the Nazi demands for progress, his co-counterfeiters' determination tosabotage the operation, and his loyalties to his fellow prisoners. The prisoners successfully counterfeit theBritish pound but intentionally delay the forgery of the US dollar. Gradually, the inmates discern slivers of evidence that the war has turned decidedly against the Nazis. One day the camp guards suddenly announce that the printing machines are to be dismantled and shipped away, which leads the counterfeiters to fear that they will finally be killed. Before anything happens to them, the German guards flee the camp in advance of theRed Army. Starving prisoners from other parts of the camp, armed with confiscated weapons, take over and break into the compound where the counterfeiters had been held in relative luxury. Until the insurrectionists see the well-fed printers' prison tattoos, they believe them to beSS officers and threaten to shoot them. The counterfeiters then must account for their forging actions to the half-dead prisoners.
The film then returns to post-war Monte Carlo, where Sorowitsch, apparently disgusted by the life he is now leading on the currency that he forged for the Nazis, intentionally gambles it all away. Sitting alone afterward on the beach, he is joined by the French woman, concerned after his seemingly disastrous losses at the table. Dancing slowly together on the beach, she continues to remark on all the money he has lost, to which he replies, laughing, "We can always make more".
Except for the score music by Marius Ruhland, the soundtrack consists of classicaltangos recorded decades ago byArgentineharmonica playerHugo Díaz, and opera recordings from the 1930s and 1940s.
The Counterfeiters holds a score of 78/100 onMetacritic, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]The Counterfeiters has an approval rating of 93% onreview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, based on 128 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The Counterfeiters is a gripping account of one prisoner's moral dilemma, superbly portrayed by Karl Markovics".[4] The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Josh Rosenblatt ofThe Austin Chronicle named it the 4th best film of 2008,[5] andElla Taylor ofLA Weekly named it the 8th best film of 2008.[5] On the other hand, some believed that the film might play into the hands of anti-Semites[6] due to the stereotypes against Jews. The director was aware of the risk posed by such stereotypes.[7]
The Counterfeiters was released (with English subtitles) onDVD andBlu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom by Metrodome Distribution on 17 March 2008, and in the US bySony Pictures Home Entertainment on 5 August 2008.
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