X
- 2008
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 39 m
- 2008
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 39 m
Summary The true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, counterfeiter extraordinaire and bohemian who was in captured by the Nazis in 1944. He agrees to help the Nazis in an organized counterfeiting operation set up to finance the war effort. It was the biggest counterfeit-money scam of all time. Over 130 million pounds sterling were printed under conditi...
Directed By: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Written By: Adolf Burger, Stefan Ruzowitzky
- 2008
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 39 m
- 2008
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 39 m
The Counterfeiters
78
7.7
Where to Watch
Summary The true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, counterfeiter extraordinaire and bohemian who was in captured by the Nazis in 1944. He agrees to help the Nazis in an organized counterfeiting operation set up to finance the war effort. It was the biggest counterfeit-money scam of all time. Over 130 million pounds sterling were printed under conditi...
Directed By: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Written By: Adolf Burger, Stefan Ruzowitzky
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
78
100% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
78
100% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Counterfeiters is in its own smart, trim fashion "The Bridge on the River Kwai" of concentration-camp sagas. Also based (like Kwai) on a real-life story, this movie starts small but becomes a miniature epic of overreach and moral drift.
Quiet, watchful, out for himself, Sorowitsch is a complicated figure - neither hero nor villain, and certainly no fool. The Austrian actor Markovics is riveting in the role; he is wiry, anticipatory, his eyes darting with intelligence and worry.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
7.7
81% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
19% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
7.7
81% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
19% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Cooperating with the enemy has been explored in other holocaust films such as "Kapo" and "The Grey Zone", but the struggle between survival and conscience has rarely been more clearly drawn than in "The Counterfeiters"-- Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film (2008). Based on the memoir "The Devil's Workshop" by Adolf Burger, one of the survivors of the program, "The Counterfeiters" is the story of Operation Bernhard, a little known World War II program engineered by the **** to use Jewish prisoners to subvert the currencies of the U.S. and the U.K through forgery. One of the biggest scams of the war, the counterfeiting operation printed over 130 million pounds sterling in its attempt to destabilize the allied cause and help the sinking German economy.
"The Counterfeiters" tells the true story **** of Jewish prisoners who were recruited from other camps for such a career--much against their wishes, if not for the threat of death. Being skilled craftsmen in their own right, they are all brought together, and realize that so long as they deliver the counterfeit bills to their captives, they'll be spared their lives. ****, talented Russian-Jewish counterfeiter Salomon Sorowitsch is sent to the Sachenhausen concentration camp to orchestrate the operation, and forced to deal with a psychopathic guard named Holst (Martin Brambach), who only wants results. At first Salomon has no issues helping the **** for comfortable conditions for himself and staff, but over time it begins to take it's toll. He is torn between his determination to stay alive with the knowledge that producing the perfect American dollar will affect the lives of his fellow workers, as well as undermine the entire Allied cause.
"The Counterfeiters" differs from other films involving the Holocaust in that the emphasis is on the personal moral choices that are made--rather than the overall horror and despair. The two barracks of Jews working on the project are kept in what they call a "golden cage," in which they have enough to eat, beds with clean linen, and piped-in opera music to drown out the sounds of the murders committed on the other side of their thin plywood walls. The prisoners' dilemma over whether to assist the Germans and thereby ensure their continued survival is the heart of the movie, which keeps the focus on moral imperatives rather than the physical ravages of the camps. Ruzowitzky's film is so gripping because his is able to simulate the daily horror's of these men with remarkable subtlety; although the workers are sheltered from seeing the brutality and torture, the screams alone are terrifying. Karl Markovics gives a phenomenal, profound performance and his disturbing moral ambiguity is a the heart of this incredible true story. Stefan Ruzowitzy adapted the book by Adolf Burger, one of the protagonist's fellow prisoners (Diehl). Ruzowitzky's script is beautifully constructed, and to his credit, does not take a position on the internal debate, but gives the viewer enough leeway to question what they would have done in similar circumstances.
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The Counterfeiters is a testament to guile. Ruzowitzky scored the picture with tangos, and the tangos are meant to be Sally’s music--seductive, insolent, triumphant.
Well made, provocative and compelling.
From an historical perspective, the story is interesting because it shows a different side of the war than what we're used to observing in motion pictures.
The Counterfeiters is a swift and suspenseful thriller, and perhaps a little too entertaining for its own good.
Markovics largely rescues the film with his mesmerizingly layered, steady performance as a man who solves the problem of compromise by refusing to admit that he's compromising.
Austrian film about Saloman Sorowitsch, a Jewish counterfeiter who was spared the concentration camps in WWII to run a fake currency production for the ****.
Moving, disturbing & great performances from Karl Markovics in the lead & Martin Brambach who gives Ralph Fiennes's Amon Goeth a run for his money as the thoroughly unpleasant Holst.
Definitely worth a watch.
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This film addresses a real situation that happened in the **** concentration camps during World War II: wishing to flood the Allies' economy with counterfeit notes and thus destroy their financial systems, the Germans decide to forcibly recruit the best Jewish counterfeit experts , led by Solomon Sorowitsch, one of the best counterfeiters that Germany had at the time. The film shows the group's efforts to comply with the demands of its captors, while trying to stay alive and boycott German plans.
The film is truly well done and addresses a story that few know and deserved to pass to the cinema. Stefan Ruzowitzky's direction does very well with his work but fails to convey emotion to a film that, without a sense of danger and a certain fear, looks very much like a dramatization for documentary. In fact, the film is not able to make us feel the danger that the characters are in, and it explores very little the whole surreal situation in which this group of prisoners finds themselves: they may be no more than a group of prisoners, but the Reich needs them.
The cast does what it needs to do, but I didn't feel that it really wanted to go any further. Karl Markovics is the actor who most stands out for the centrality of his character, but he was not able to surprise, in a character who is capable of being really rude, arrogant and very little empathic. August Diehl also has a central character in the plot and works well on paper and shows some very welcome feeling.
Technically, it is a discreet film, betting on building a good scenario and using a set of costumes very well done to be able to recreate the atmosphere in the fields. It also has a regular cinematography, which fulfills its role well, but does not go beyond what is required, and good effects.
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Production Company
Magnolia Filmproduktion,
Aichholzer Filmproduktion,
Beta Cinema,
Filmförderung Hamburg,
Studio Babelsberg,
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
Release Date Feb 22, 2008
Duration 1 h 39 m
Rating R
Tagline It takes a clever man to make money, it takes a genius to stay alive
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
German Film Awards
• 1 Win & 7 Nominations
Valladolid International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
