The Counterfeiters [2007]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk 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

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-25 rating:
At last...
Some years I go months and months without seeing a half decent film and start to wonder if I've just gone off films altogether. The last two films I really enjoyed (back in December!) were The Piano Teacher and The Lives Of Others, both intelligent and slowpaced dramas that had me spellbound. The Counterfeiters (another European film!) is of a similar quality, a wonderful, moving story beautifully acted with great cinematography.

I can't recommend this enough.

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review by: date: 2008-07-30 rating:
Language?
Does anybody know if this film has the original German Soundtrack with English subtitles or has it been dubbed?
It is a shame that product information on amazon is generally very vague especially about important things such as this.
Any clues would be appreciated - many thanks!

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review by: date: 2008-07-26 rating:
Captivating Drama
"The Counterfeiters" is an excellent German language film set in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the latter stages of World War Two. Karl Markovics plays a Jewish counterfeiter who ,together with other Jews from a printing background, are forced by the Nazis to forge English pound notes and dollar bills to help finance the Nazi's increasingly desperate war efforts. The strengths of this Oscar winning film are it's realistic characterisation and superb acting especially that of the mercurial Markovics.The brutality and inhumanity of the Nazis treatment of the Jews is vividly conveyed as is the survivalism of the Jewish prisoners. Definitely one of the best foreign language films that I have seen for some time.As good as "The Lives of Others".

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review by: date: 2008-07-14 rating:
Subtitles alone cost this outstanding film a star
This is an excellent film of the 'too much effort to critique' variety. However, I could find no mention on the DVD packaging nor on a quick perusal of this site that the soundtrack is in German with English subtitles (as is The Lives Of Others to which it is compared in Amazon's own review). If this matters to you, then you should be aware of the fact. Personally I find subtitles in this type of film a mixed blessing: yes it is authentic but even topping up a wine glass risks missing a crucial piece of dialogue. Moreover, while film snobs may sneer, the reality is that people do not communicate by holding up cards with their words written on them. There is a small cost to subtitles and I deduct a star only because of it. If subtitles really do not matter to you, then please add one back on.




review by: foxhay date: 2008-07-08 rating:
Excellent Film, Gripping and Thought Provoking
I thought this was a really gripping film and one that raised more complex ethical questions than is usual in this context.
The story centres on two central characters who are part of a group of prisoners in a concentration camp chosen by the Nazis to carry out a counterfeiting operation which could go far to aiding the Nazi war effort.
Burger is an idealistic communist, willing to sabotage the operation and sacrifice his life for his principles, unfortunately this would also mean sacrificing the lives of the others in the group. 'Solly' on the other hand is a criminal, a master counterfeiter whose pragmatism has ensured his survival throughout the war and before. He walks a tightrope between self preservation and honour towards his fellow inmates. He does not have the black and white outlook of Burger and sees partial coersion with the Nazis as the best way to preserve his life and the lives of the other prisoners in his group. He is a complex and interesting character suberbly played by Markovics. In fact all the acting in this film is excellent. Overall the film manages to operate both as a tense, involving drama and one that raises an interesting debate about what would be 'the right thing to do' in such harrowing circumstances. Highly recommended.

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