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The Counterfeiters | 
 enlarge | Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.96
Buy Used: $9.75
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Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 369
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), German (Original Language), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 23920
UPC: 043396239203
EAN: 0043396239203
ASIN: B0012QE4PI
Theatrical Release Date: February 22, 2008
Release Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Free Upgrade To First Class Shipping! Priority Shipping With The Purchase Of 4 Or More DVD's! All orders are shipped in padded envelopes
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.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 treatment, 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)
Product Description
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters tells the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a swindler who made a name for himself as Berlin's "King of the Counterfeiters." However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he's arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. With the German army on the verge of bankruptcy, Sorowitsch makes a sobering deal with his captors: in exchange for a comfortable bed, good food and fair treatment, Sorowitsch, along with the other hand-picked specialists, must counterfeit bank notes to fund the Nazi War effort. If he does as they say, he lives another day. If he rebels, he faces the same fate as the rest of the camp's prisoners. But if he lives, will he be able to live with himself?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 The CounterfeitersI September 1, 2008
Roger K. Lee
I purchased this movie because a friend of mine is the son of a master engraver who created the forged British banknotes during WWII. When I saw the movie I was quite surprised with its involvement with the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The engraver that I knew about was a German civilian. Nevertheless, the DVD contains an interview with the Russian engraver who was the main character in this verson of the story of this counterfeiting operation. It is my conjecture that the task of the German Government in this project was too important to their economy to perform the forgery in only one location or facility. This movie portrays a most unusual take on life in a German concentration camp, Sachsenhausen. The creation of an elite group of master engravers to carry out this operation was totally exceptional to expected camp life. Instead of fear of the guards, poor food or starvation, and bad quarters, these prisoners were given good civilian clothes probably taken from others who were less fortunate. They slept on beds with cotton sheets, and ate high quality food. They had classical music played on the phonograph while they worked at their printing tasks. While the story was a good story dealing with the tensions between prisoners from differing ethnic, social, and political backgrounds (The villian was a communist who tried to sabotage operations). This makes a good plot for a movie, but from another friend of mine who had been in the Dachau Camp, the prisoners were sorted into four categories; common criminals, political prisoners (my friend), prisoners who were candidates for ethnic cleansing, and finally the insane, crippled, or medically defective individuals. They wore a distinctive uniform peculiar to each category, and probably did not mix very much socially. The Russian engraver fitted the criminal category well and had been arrested for forging passports and travel papers. The movie had minor technical problems. The printing equipment used was not of sufficient quality to print bank notes. A scene of the prisoners dancing in celebration used dance movements appropriate to the 1960's. Nevertheless, the movie portrayed a very believeable story of a technical secret operation of the German Government that is closely held even today.
Roger Kenneth Lee
Wow, a piece of untold history, until now August 31, 2008
Sushi (A Brit in New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
the movie focuses on a true piece of nazi's and jewish history during the second WW. The acting was excellent that portrayed a group of men who became part of the nazi's funding plan by forging the english pounds and other documents like passports. Although the story is based in the concentration camp and in places the story took some gruelsome turns; it was another sad protrayal of human behavior and yet the human spirit to come through all of it. A truely remarkable movie.
Fascinating Piece of WWII History Transformed into a Modern Morality Play. August 16, 2008
mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA)
"The Counterfeiters" is a dramatization one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history, a top secret Nazi initiative called "Operation Bernhardt" that operated out of Blocks 18 and 19 of the Sachenhaussen concentration camp using prisoners with expertise in forgery and printing to counterfeit over 132 million during World War II. The film is based on the book "The Devil's Workshop" by Adolf Burger, who consulted on director Stefan Ruzowitzky's screenplay. Burger was a political prisoner from Prague, a printer by profession, who was among the prisoners in the counterfeiting program at Sachenhaussen. The story in the film is heavily fictionalized to make it more of a morality play than a history lesson, and most names have been changed for legal reasons. But the story of the operation and sabotage are true.
Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) is living the high life in Berlin of the 1930s, financed by the money he makes forging documents, which are much in demand as war looms. He's arrested by an officer of the Berlin counterfeiting squad and sent to prison but later transferred to a concentration camp, because he is Jewish. Another transfer to Sachenhaussen allows Sally to escape those dreadful conditions. There, he is introduced to a diverse group of prisoners who have been given the task of counterfeiting the British pound and American dollar by none other than his arresting officer, now Sturmbannfuhrer Herzog (Devid Striesow). Sally is grateful for the relatively comfortable living conditions and amenable to the challenge of his work, but another prisoner, Adolf Burger (August Diehl), feels that they should sabotage the Nazi counterfeiting effort.
Liberties taken with the real story may account for "The Counterfeiters" poor reception in Germany and Austria. The rest of the world seemed more willing to focus on the fascinating counterfeiting operation and (fictional) moral quandary of the prisoners. There is a lot to like in Ruzowitzky's script. Instead of the usual innocent bourgeois perspective on life inside a concentration camp, Sally is a career criminal, accustomed to being in prison. Instead of conflict between Nazis and prisoners, the conflict is within the prisoners themselves: Should we help the Nazi war effort to save our lives? "The Counterfeiters" offers the perspective of prisoners who, briefly, had a relatively cushy situation but feared a return to their previous nightmare. Sally's survival instinct and his convict's commitment to never rat out a fellow inmate come into conflict at Sachenhaussen, which makes a good story. In German with optional English subtitles.
The DVD (Sony 2008): Bonus features are in English or in German with subtitles, as noted. "The Making of The Counterfeiters" (10 min, German) interviews director Ruzowitzky, Adolf Burger, and the cast, with some discussion of the real events. "Interviews" are with Stefan Ruzowitzky (18 min, English), Adolf Burger (10 min, German), and actor Karl Markovics (10 min, English). In "Adolf Burger's Artifacts" (19 min, German), Burger talks about the counterfeiting, sabotage, life in the camp, the real Sally, and shows us some mementos. "Q&A with director Stefan Ruzowitzky (13 min, English) takes questions from the audience at AFI Filmfest. There is a good, constant feature commentary by Stefan Ruzowitzky that discusses photography, editing, filming, fictional elements, and more. And there is a theatrical trailer and 4 deleted scenes. To hear the true story of Operation Bernhardt, the best feature is "Adolf Burger's Artifacts". For the director's explanation of his intentions, watch the 18-minute interview. Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, Spanish. Dubbing available in French.
"I Won't Give the Nazis the Pleasure of Being Ashamed I'm Still Alive" August 10, 2008
JP's Picks (Boise, ID)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
There were seldom easy choices during The Holocaust. Survival meant everything, and those who did live past World War II had fascinating and harrowing stories to share. Such is the case of ladies' man and counterfeiter, Solomon Sarowitsch (Kal Makovics).
When an S.S. agent catches "Sally`s" fake U.S. dollars, he puts him in a concentration camp. Savvy and a gifted artist, he creates a flattering pencil portrait of an SS figure head. From there he gets a ticket to more bearable living conditions, including soft bunk-beds and livable food rations. He does more portraits, including an outside mural until an officer announces his deportation to another camp. Easily perturbed by the change in plans, he discovers the Nazis have bigger fish for him to fry.
At the new concentration camp, he encounters Holst (Martin Brambach), the officer who arrested him. The new camp still provides livable conditions including operatic music during work, but his new assignment is to create the most authentic counterfeit currency from the allies' side, making pounds and later dollars.
Always desperate and under pressure, Sally's collected spirit is at odds with communist co-worker, Burger (August Diehl), who insists they "sabotage" the operation, noting that replenished funds could help the Nazis win the war. No easy dilemma, dissention hits within the group as Sally tries to keep informants from squealing while keeping a young lascivious friend from being detected for his infectious tuberculosis. Pressured by Herzog (Devid Stricson), a less menacing SS officer and a key bargaining chip, Sally must decide if he must do what is practical to survive or bend to Burger who sees his plan as the only way to help all.
While the presentation of 'The Counterfeiters' is easily more tightly presented and creates more tangible Nazi tension than 'Black Book,' it's hard to say this Holocaust film has the same impact as some finer ones like `Au Revoir Les Enfants'. Not every Holocaust film has to be a `Schindler's List,' but this one manages to be highly engaging with immediate scenes, expert editing, and all around great performances. Best of all, 'The Counterfeiters' provides a great story and tells it well.
(An Oscar nominee for "Best Foreign film, 'The Counterfeiters' was directed with laudable finesse by Stefan Ruzowitzky.)
A J.P.'s Pick 4*'s = Very Good
 War and self-preservation August 10, 2008
Baking Enthusiast (Chicago, IL USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Operation Bernhard was a secret Nazi counterfeit scheme and one of the lesser-known events of WWII. A group of Jewish printers, engravers, graphic artists, and commercial photographers were rounded up and taken to Sachsenhausen where a counterfeiting factory was set up specifically to produce English Pound notes and later, US dollars, with the Nazi goal of flooding and destabilizing Britain's economy. The resulting notes were so expertly manufactured that Nazi spies had them validated by the Bank of England, which confirmed them as authentic. "The Counterfeiters" (Die Fälscher) is based on this true story.
The film opens in Monte Carlo after WWII. Salomon Sorowitsch (Sally) has a case filled with bank notes, which he carelessly spends at a posh hotel. The story flashes back to 1936 Berlin when Sally was a master forgerer and artist with a thriving underground business. He is captured by the Nazi police and taken to a hard labor camp where he cheats death by drawing portraits of SS officers. Five years later, he is moved to a concentration camp, Sachsenhausen, where he is ordered to supervise the production of what amounted to 132M in counterfeit notes.
Sally is a realist and much as he is sickened by the Nazi's atrocities, he works hard at perfecting their product for no other purpose than self-preservation. "One adapts or dies," he says. The group is housed separately from other prisoners and is given sheets, soap, and clothing. Their participation, however, did not guarantee them their lives. To fully grasp the hopelessness, author Lawrence Malkin wrote in his book, "Krueger's Men," an account of this same story: "[The SS planned to keep the operation secret by killing them when the job was done. The prisoners worked with the knowledge that they were marked for death when they had finished their jobs.] From the start, they wondered whether they should stretch out their work and risk execution for sabotage, or perform efficiently and thus hasten their own deaths."
The cries and shots from beyond their barracks can be distinctly heard and the group still suffers occasional beatings and humiliations by the SS. A young idealist and printer, Adolf Burger, whose wife was killed in Auschwitz, incites the group to sabotage the counterfeiting operations, arguing that they are party to the financing of the Nazi war effort. Sally manages to abort Burger's plans, insisting that dying for a principle is worthless. Despite being a swindler, Sally protected his mates as best as he could and refused to betray anyone of them, going so far as to barter with his barracks commandant for medicine for a sick mate and lying to save another's life.
This story survived because Adolf Burger survived. He is 90 years old and still lectures about the Holocaust and Operation Bernhard in Prague, and served as consultant in the film. It does have an incredible level of authenticity to it. Karl Markovics as Sally was just superb. With very little outward emotion, he is able to project the nightmarish life in Sachsenhausen, where one mistake could mean the end of your life. He is clearly torn by his need to survive and the tragedies of his mates--Burger's wife and another's children killed by the Nazis--as well as the killings of prisoners beyond their barracks. His moments of grief are quite touching. The young August Diehl as Burger is excellent, too, and his idealistic stance was an effective contrast to Sally's pragmatism. Two very different men with divergent approaches, but both courageous and inspiring. When the story returns to Monte Carlo, Sally does something unexpected that's a fitting end to the story.
I really think it's a perfect film. There's not a single thing I can find fault with. It's a quality drama about the moral dilemmas prisoners grappled with when faced daily with the prospect of death, and how wrenching these choices were. It certainly deserved its Oscar as best Foreign Language Film in 2007.
DVD extras are: The Making of..., Interview with the director, Adolf Burger's Artifacts, and a Q&A with the director, all worth seeing as they provide an even deeper understanding of the true story of Operation Bernhard (named after the scheme's instigator, SS officer Bernhard Krueger). It's an excellent and compelling story and highly recommended.
(Language: German with English subtitles)
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