In association with

The Counterfeiters [2007]
from Metrodome Distribution
starring August Diehl, Dolores Chapli, Devid Strieso, Karl Markovic, Martin Brambach
directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Not for nothing did Stefan Ruzowitzky's powerful film The Counterfeiters walk away with the Best Foreign Picture Oscar at the 2008 Academy Awards. And like the previous year's winner of the prize--the equally superb The Lives Of Others--there are some tough decisions for certain German citizens at the heart of it.

The Counterfeiters, though, is set in West Germany in 1936. It tells the true story of history's biggest ever counterfeiting operation, set up by the Nazis. The mission? To forge foreign currency. And the king of counterfeiters proves to be Salomon Soroswitch, also known as Sally, who ultimately has to face the dilemma of what to do when he realises that his work is helping to fuel war.

There are so many reasons to commend The Counterfeiters that it's tricky to know where to start. The cast, for instance, is uniformly excellent, and you could rightly wonder why Oscar overlooked both August Diehl and Karl Markovics for nominations. What's more, it's also stunningly, and very intelligently, directed, ratcheting up at times the kind of tension that hundreds of films try and fail to match every year. Married up to a script of three dimensional characters and historical reverence, it's a quite brilliant package, and one that stays with you long after the credits have rolled.

The Counterfeiters is a very different film to The Lives Of Others, but both expertly reflect the dilemmas that individuals had to face in different parts of Germany, albeit some four or five decades apart. Both are exceptional pieces of cinema, though, and for the purposes of this particular review, The Counterfeiters deserves its Oscar, deserves its worldwide praise, and deserves to be part of your DVD collection. Don't miss it. --Jon Foster

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Worthy of our attention
  This Holocaust film falls short of the power of Schlinder's List, but it is an interesting story with credible acting and an intelligent script. The concentration guards looked authentic and the main protagonist (excellently played by Karl Markovics) is a reassuringly flawed character, rather than a predictable inscrutable hero.
  It is hard to avoid comparing this Germanic film with other recent gems such as Downfall and The Lives of Others, which I felt were better. Nevertheless, it is a worthy attempt... more info

• Unrealistic
  The film fictionalises Operation Bernhard. A plan hatched by the Nazis was to destabilise the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England currency. The movie is based on a memoir written by Adolf Burger a Jewish Slovak typographer interned for forging baptismal certificates.
  I have found the film in part badly acted, and that makes it seem unrealistic - despite the theme it deals with. I must concur with some criticism it has drawn from reviewers in other countries. One should... more info

• Pounds
  The New Germany and Austria by extension have been in the process, these past several years, of divesting themselves of National Guilt in regards to the atrocities of World War 2: "Sophie Scholl," "Downfall" and also the superb "Lives of Others" (though set in post WWII East Berlin, it reeks of submission and totalitarianism) speak to the redemptive qualities of confession and penance.
  And now we have "The Counterfeiters," the story of Solomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a Russian-born Jew who... more info

• counterfeiters
  The counterfeiters is a truly mesmerizing movie with an utterly compelling performance from Karl Markovics who plays the main character 'Sally' an artist turned counterfeiter par excellance.
  When he is arrested by the Berlin police Sally finds himself in a concentration camp to survive he must adapt to his surroundings and he uses his artistic skills as a means of survival by painting portraits of the prison guards. Soon he is moved onto another camp and finds himself face to face with the man who put... more info

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