The Counterfeiters

Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a mischievous life of cards, booze, and women in Berlin during the Nazi-era. Suddenly his luck runs dry when arrested by Superintendent Friedrich Herzog. Immediately thrown into the Mauthausen concentration camp, Salomon exhibits exceptional skills there and is soon transferred to the upgraded camp of Sachsenhausen. Upon his arrival, he once again comes face to face with Herzog, who is there on a secret mission. Hand-picked for his unique skill, Salomon and a group of professionals are forced to produce fake foreign currency under the program Operation Berhard. The team, which also includes detainee Adolf Burger, is given luxury barracks for their assistance. But while Salomon attempts to weaken the economy of Germany’s allied nents, Adolf refuses to use his skills for Nazi profit and would like to do something to stop Operation Bernhard's aid to the war effort. Faced with a moral dilemma, Salomon must decide whethe .com ---- A deft blend of suspense and docudrama, Stefan Ruzowitzky's sixth feature focuses on history's largest counterfeiting operation. Before World War II breaks out, Salomon Sorowitsch (the compact yet steely Karl Markovics), a Russian-born Jew, lives the good life in Berlin. He forges documents, like passports and banknotes, and sketches beautiful women to the romantic strains of tango records. Sorowitsch's dolce vita comes to an end when he's sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. Once Reich officials decide to deploy imprisoned printers, craftsmen, and bank officials to counterfeit foreign currency, they draft Sorowitsch for "Operation Bernhard" and ship him to Sachsenhausen. Though he and his colleagues receive preferential , the threat of execution hangs over their heads at all times. First, they master the pound; then they tackle the American dollar. At this point, communist co-worker Adolf Burger (The Ninth Day's excellent August Diehl) suggests sabotage. As he explains, they're extending the conflict and increasing the death toll, but the entire team will suffer if they fail, even their SS supervisor, Freidrich Herzog (Downfall's Devid Striesow), whose career depends on it. As Jews, however, they stand to lose more than their jobs. Based on Burger's book The Devil's Workshop, Austria's Ruzowitzky (Anatomy) sheds a compassionate light on the guilt and complicity of survivors. Though The Counterfeiters plays more like a prison camp movie than a Holocaust drama--Stalag 17 comes to mind--that doesn't make it any less significant, just less wrenching than some of its counterparts. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Stills from The Counterfeiters (click for larger image) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_1lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_2lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_3lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_4lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_5lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_6lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_7lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_8lg.jpg ) ( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/sony/Counterfeiters/Counterfeiters_9lg.jpg )

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