vernon film society
Bringing the best in world and Canadian film to film lovers of Vernon and the North Okanagan
THE COUNTERFEITERS
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Cast: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zirner
Run Time: 99 minutes
Country: Austria/Germany
Year: 2007
Language: German with English subtitles
Rating: 14A (Violence)
Reviews: www.metacritic.com/film/titles/counterfeiters
An epic tale of ultimate temptation during the Second World War, THE COUNTERFEITERS recounts a diabolical Nazi scheme involved toppling foreign economies and fuelling the German war effort with hoards of counterfeit pounds and dollars. The men forced to craft all that money were imprisoned Jews who just happened to be bankers, printers and a few professional forgers. In return, they were offered the chance to live the high life while their fellow prisoners starved.
The film is told as the reminiscences of gaunt yet spirited Salomon Sorowitsch, who looks back on the Second World War while on a gambling binge at Monte Carlo. In the Weimar era, he was a libertine living the good life thanks to his considerable counterfeiting abilities, but he was eventually arrested by police inspector Herzog and sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Always looking out for number one, Sorowitsch keeps his nose clean and even becomes the camp‘s resident artist. Years later, he is unceremoniously sent to Sachsenhausen, where Herzog announces that he is to forge bills with a group including Burger – whose anti-Nazi tactics constantly rock the counterfeiting boat – for the financial gain of the Third Reich. They are given privileges that the rest of the camp lacks, but if they do not produce perfect replicas, they will be summarily executed. Having a conscience thus carries a prohibitively high price, but is survival really the ultimate goal when others will die by their hands? The battle of wits between Herzog and the counterfeiters – particularly Sorowitsch, who is always game for a challenge – is thoroughly absorbing.
The film expertly captures the period through director Stefan Ruzowitzky‘s careful attention to detail inside the camp. While there are moments of harsh violence, much of the daily degradation of their fellow Jews is only within the spoiled forgers‘ earshot, invisible outside their private barracks. Never stuffy or melodramatic, the film charts the toll that their morally compromised position inevitably takes with a vigorous energy.
“Well made, provocative and compelling.” - San Francisco Chronicle
