The Counterfeiters
starring: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zirner
directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky
directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky
List Price: $28.96
Prices subject to change.
Price: $20.49
You Save: $8.47 (29%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Product Description:
Movie DVD
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)
Movie DVD
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)
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Browse for similar items by category:
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Art House & International » General
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Art House & International » By Country » Germany » Drama
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Art House & International » By Country » Germany » General AAS
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Art House & International » By Original Language » German
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Drama » General
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- 2.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
A disappointing film that fails to properly address the moral questions it raises and comes complete with several moments which reek of artifice (as when the counterfeiters manage to replicate the dollar just in time to save their comrades' lives), The Counterfeiters is a rather mediocre film which pales in comparison to Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone.
Rating: 
- Satisfied!
I haven't watched the DVD yet, but it's a clean copy and it arrived soon after the purchase. Would buy from again.
Rating: - The Counterfeiters
This was an excellent movie but would have been more interesting to me if they hadn'tadded the fictional hollywood type stuff.
Rating: - Money can change the world historically
This film is a spacious study of a men's life in the life of counterfitting.There is a segment when he is in a concentration camp during world war 11.The events depected are very real, andthought provoking.The story line is very live like, but with minimal over the top violance.It gives a different view point from another vantage point about the holocust and how people were treated during that time..I recommend it highly.
Rating: - Close to perfection, amazing nonetheless
It's interesting to see how in times of despair, comradry fails. A film about concentration camps with the most interesting of characters playing the lead. This film is more about counterfeiting and proposes a great reason Germany dominated the war. They counterfeited British currency to four times the actual worth and had in mind to do the same with the Dollar. What just happens then is a never heard before story of the world's history. Strongly recommended film. The Counterfeiters did something ... Read More
- 2.5 stars out of 4The Bottom Line:
A disappointing film that fails to properly address the moral questions it raises and comes complete with several moments which reek of artifice (as when the counterfeiters manage to replicate the dollar just in time to save their comrades' lives), The Counterfeiters is a rather mediocre film which pales in comparison to Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone.
- Satisfied!I haven't watched the DVD yet, but it's a clean copy and it arrived soon after the purchase. Would buy from again.
- The CounterfeitersThis was an excellent movie but would have been more interesting to me if they hadn'tadded the fictional hollywood type stuff.
- Money can change the world historicallyThis film is a spacious study of a men's life in the life of counterfitting.There is a segment when he is in a concentration camp during world war 11.The events depected are very real, andthought provoking.The story line is very live like, but with minimal over the top violance.It gives a different view point from another vantage point about the holocust and how people were treated during that time..I recommend it highly.
- Close to perfection, amazing nonethelessIt's interesting to see how in times of despair, comradry fails. A film about concentration camps with the most interesting of characters playing the lead. This film is more about counterfeiting and proposes a great reason Germany dominated the war. They counterfeited British currency to four times the actual worth and had in mind to do the same with the Dollar. What just happens then is a never heard before story of the world's history. Strongly recommended film. The Counterfeiters did something ... Read More
