The Counterfeiters (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Counterfeiters

Danish-language poster
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
Produced by Josef Aichholzer
Nina Bohlmann
Babette Schröder
Written by Adolf Burger (book)
Stefan Ruzowitzky
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 (Germany)
12 October 2007 (UK)
22 February 2008 (USA, limited)[1]
Running time 98 minutes
Country Flag of Austria Austria
Flag of Germany Germany
Language German
Budget €4.2 million[2]
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile
"The Counterfeiters" redirects here. For the book by André Gide, see The Counterfeiters (novel).

The Counterfeiters (German: Die Fälscher) is an Academy Award winning 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 the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England currency. The film centers on a Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon 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.[3] It won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008 for Austria.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The film begins shortly after the end of the Second World War, with a 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 an attractive French woman. Later, she discovers tattooed numerals on his arm, revealing him as a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps.

The film's perspective 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 hard labour camp, then later in a concentration camp (Mauthausen 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.

His 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 Sachsenhausen concentration camp devoted to forgery. 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 United States dollar, a currency he was previously unable to forge.

Sorowitsch juggles the demands for progress of the Nazi authorities, his co-counterfeiters determined to sabotage the operation, and his loyalties to his fellow prisoners. In the background, slivers of evidence that the war has turned decidedly against the Nazis gradually arrive. Finally, just as Sorowitsch's team successfully counterfeits the Dollar, the operation is ceased and provision made to move the counterfeiting equipment, and later the prisoners, to an alternative location. However, before the move takes place, the German guards flee the camp, allowing its other prisoners to take control. These are initially suspicious of the counterfeiters because of the relatively good conditions under which they are held, but the tattoos and stories of the counterfeiters convince them that they, too, were 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 afterwards 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 that it is only money, to which he replies, laughing, that he can always make more.

[edit] Music

Except for the score music by Marius Ruhland, the soundtrack consists of classical tangos recorded decades ago by Argentinean harmonica player Hugo Díaz and old opera recordings from the '30s and '40s.

[edit] Awards and nominations

  • German Film Awards, 2007
    • Won; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role; Devid Striesow
    • Nominated; Best Cinematography; Benedict Neuenfels
    • Nominated; Best Costume Design; Nicole Fischnaller
    • Nominated; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Karl Markovics
    • Nominated; Best Production Design; Isidor Wimmer
    • Nominated; Best Screenplay; Stefan Ruzowitzky
    • Nominated; Outstanding Feature Film; Nina Bohlmann, Babette Schröder, Josef Aichholzer
Awards
Preceded by
The Lives of Others
Flag of Germany Germany		 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2007		 Succeeded by
Incumbent

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fälscher, Die (2007) - Release dates
  2. ^ Schiefer, Karin (2006). Stefan Ruzowitzky: The Counterfeiters. Austrian Film Commission. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  3. ^ The Counterfeiters Tell Their Tale
  4. ^ Adacemy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards Database 2007 (80th)

[edit] Operation Bernhard

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Cinema of Austria

Films A-Z • Films by year: 1907-1919 • 1920s • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Actors • Directors • Cinematographers • Festivals • Producers • Screenwriters