The Counterfeiters (film)

The Counterfeiters
Danish-language poster
Directed by	Stefan Ruzowitzky
Produced by	Josef Aichholzer Nina Bohlmann Babette Schröder
Written by	Stefan Ruzowitzky Adolf Burger (book)
Starring	Karl Markovics August Diehl Devid Striesow
Music by	Marius Ruhland
Cinematography	Benedict Neuenfels
Editing by	Britta Nahler
Distributed by	Universum Film AG Sony Pictures Classics (English subtitles)
Release date(s)	22 March 2007 (2007-03-22) (Germany) 02007-03-23 March 23, 2007 (Austria)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Austria Germany
Language	German
Budget	€4.2 million[1]

The Counterfeiters (German: Die Fälscher) is a 2007 Austrian-German film written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. It fictionalizes Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by the Nazis during the Second World War to destabilize Great Britain by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England bank notes.The film centres on a Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch, who is coerced into assisting the Nazi operation at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The film is based on a memoir written by Adolf Burger, a Jewish Slovak typographer who was imprisoned in 1942 for forging baptismal certificates to save Jews from deportation, and later interned at Sachsenhausen to work on Operation Bernhard.^[2] Ruzowitsky consulted closely with Burger through almost every stage of the writing and production. The film won the 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards.

Plot

The film begins shortly after the end of the Second World War, with a German man arriving in Monte Carlo. After checking into an expensive hotel and paying with cash, he takes in the high life of Monte Carlo, successfully gambling in a casino and attracting the attention of a beautiful French woman. Later, she discovers tattooed numerals on his arm, revealing him as a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps.

The film then shifts to Berlin in 1936, where the man, Salomon Sorowitsch, is revealed as a successful forger of currency and passports. Caught by the police, he is imprisoned, first in a labor camp, then in Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz. 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 to 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 the Sachsenhausen concentration camp devoted to forgery. The counterfeiters are kept in relatively humane conditions, with comfortable bunks, a washroom and adequate food, although they are subjected to brutality and insults at the hands of the prison guards. 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 the extermination 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 demands for progress of the Nazi authorities, his co-counterfeiters' determination to sabotage the operation, and his loyalties to his fellow prisoners. The prisoners successfully counterfeit the British pound but intentionally delay the forgery of the US dollar. In the background, slivers of evidence that the war has turned decidedly against the Nazis gradually arrive. 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 the Red 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 be SS officers and threaten them. The counterfeiters then must account for their actions to the half-dead prisoners.

The film then returns to 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 comforts him regarding all the money he has lost, to which he replies, laughing, that he can always make more.

Cast

• Karl Markovics as "Sorowitsch" (Salomon Smolianoff)
• August Diehl as "Burger" (Adolf Burger)
• Devid Striesow as "Sturmbannführer Herzog" (Bernhard Krüger)
• Veit Stübner as "Atze"
• Sebastian Urzendowsky as "Kolya"
• August Zirner as "Dr Klinger"
• Martin Brambach as "Hauptscharführer Holst"
• Andreas Schmidt as "Zilinski"
• Tilo Prückner as "Hahn"
• Lenn Kudrjawizki as "Loszek"

Production

Except for the score music by Marius Ruhland, the soundtrack consists of classical tangos recorded decades ago by Argentine harmonica player Hugo Díaz, and opera recordings from the 1930s and 1940s.

Home media

The Counterfeiters was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 5 August 2008. The extras on the disc include deleted scenes, a short behind-the-scenes documentary, and interviews with Burger, Ruzowitsky and the lead actor, Markovics.

Reception

Critical response

The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Josh Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle named it the 4th best film of 2008,^[3] and Ella Taylor of LA Weekly named it the 8th best film of 2008.^[3]

Awards and nominations

• Academy Awards 2007 (24 February 2008)
  • Won Best Foreign Language Film; Austria^[4]

• Berlin International Film Festival, 2007
  • Nominated for Golden Bear award: Stefan Ruzowitzky

• German Film Awards, 2007
  • Won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Devid Striesow
  • Nominated for Best Cinematography: Benedict Neuenfels
  • Nominated for Best Costume Design: Nicole Fischnaller
  • Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Karl Markovics
  • Nominated for Best Production Design: Isidor Wimmer
  • Nominated for Best Screenplay: Stefan Ruzowitzky
  • Nominated for Outstanding Feature Film: Nina Bohlmann, Babette Schröder, Josef Aichholzer

References

1. ^ Schiefer, Karin (2006). "Stefan Ruzowitzky: The Counterfeiters". Austrian Film Commission. http://www.afc.at/jart/prj3/afc/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1148999736995&artikel_id=1169655749044. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
2. ^ The Counterfeiters Tell Their Tale
3. ^ ^{a b} "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards/2008/toptens.shtml. Retrieved 11 January 2009. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards Database 2007 (80th)

External links

• Official U.S. website
• The Counterfeiters at the Internet Movie Database
• The Counterfeiters at AllRovi
• The Counterfeiters at Metacritic
• The Counterfeiters at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Counterfeiters at Box Office Mojo