Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) Stefan Ruzowitzky's "Die Fälscher" is an Academy award winning movie set during World War II about Jewish prisoners forced to create perfect imitations of the Pound and the Dollar in order to destroy the British and American economy. Ruzowitzky, at this point, was mostly known for the two "Anatomie" thrillers and a horribly received movie named "All the Queen's Men" obviously being at least a name parody of the classic "All the King's Men". For "Die Fälscher", he adapted Adolf Burger's book and it became a massive success. Looks like the Academy still loves a good Nazi movie. Maybe it was because, the aspect of falsifying money has during the years of WWII has not been too present in movies so far. Strangely enough, none of the 5 Foreign Language film nominees were nominated at the Globes that year, so it was a very open race. At the German Film Awards, the movie only managed to win one of its seven nominations, namely David Striesow as supporting actor (a Nazi general who sees the Jews more as his staff than his prisoners, but is evil nonetheless if they don't deliver), although I personally thought that Diehl and Brambach gave better supporting performances as a heroic Jew and ruthless Nazi officer.All in all, this is a movie that is well-written, well-directed, well-acted and well-crafted in every regard, but still somehow I felt something was missing for greatness. Still, I thought Markovics (who you may have seen on "Kommissar Rex" many years ago) gives a pretty good performance who is stuck between his loyalty to Jewism/hate towards Nazis and his dedication to his craft. He wants to succeed as a falsifier, even if he works for his biggest enemy. It is interesting how he can justify this dedication with the fact that he has to succeed in order to not be killed. At the beginning we see that he survived (the beginning, the post-war scenes are maybe my favorite from the film) the concentration camp. But that does not hurt the film at all. It's not really about the question if he will survive. It's much more of a character study and also about his relationship with Diehl's character. One of the most interesting moments in that relationship is when we find out that Diehl's character's wife is killed in another concentration camp. Diehl's character is by the way the writer of the book.Finally, almost at the ending, there is quite some irony that it is their concentration camp tattoos that basically save their lives when allied forces initially mistake them for Nazis. And as we are at the now again when the film closes, we see how Markovics' character somehow lacks direction and goals as he is no longer printing fake money for the Nazis, what he could do best. It reminds me of how prison inmates often struggle when they are released into freedom again. Maybe you remember the famous scene from "Shawshank Redemption". Anyway, "Die Fälscher" is a good film all in all. Not sure if it is a worthy Academy Award winner. I may have given the Foreign Language win to "Let The Right One in" that year, but I still recommend watching it, especially if you have an interest in German/Austrian cinema or just World War II movies in general.

Richard Alex Jenkins I really enjoyed this film which, funnily enough, was the third foreign language film that I watched in a row.Obviously it wasn't made in Hollywood so it didn't have that level of unrealistic glossy schmaltz that, let's say, 'The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas' had: a film based in and around a concentration camp but which didn't really make you believe it was there. No, this was right on the button, full of skinny, abused, scared, frightened, p*ss-stinking men fighting for their lives. You could feel their sense of inner retreat and the desire just to survive, but without giving up on their morals or grassing up their colleagues.It was a very immersive experience that dispelled my doubts really quickly. I feared it could be a little soft or unrealistic, or that the acting might not be that good, but those fears were unfounded. I'm not a big fan of 'La vita è bella' (Life is Beautiful), for example, because of the campy humour and unrealistic concentration camp imagery and life - just not a place for laughs, optimism, children at all. I need something very gritty, and I got it in spades here.The acting was really good, albeit in German. The sense of being a miserable, worthless Jew was fully conveyed, but with a spirit of dignity and the ability to achieve something on a grandiose scale even under the most severe conditions.I never once questioned the realism or plausibility of the film because it was so well made, but most of all it's the sort of film that I really enjoy on a personal level.Hopefully there'll never be a glossed-over English speaking remake of this film, because there really is no need.

edwagreen No wonder this won the Oscar for best foreign film of 2007.Amazing that a Jew was operating in Berlin counterfeiting money as late as 1936. It was also amazing that he didn't suffer the same fate of the rest of his people.Sure he did not. The Germans used him and others to make phony pounds. This was done to flood the British country with the money so as to create an extreme inflation. Once they succeeded in this, the Nazis turned their attention to the good old American dollar.These counterfeiters were given the "best" of conditions in concentration camps including soft beds.The film shows the cohesiveness of these men who worked, while outside death ran supreme.Naturally, there is a vicious guard whose cruelty goes unmatched.The film shows how the men deceived the Nazis by stalling with the phony dollars.

CountZero313 Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch is an expert counterfeiter whose luck runs out when he overrules his survival instinct for one more roll in the sack. Unfortunately for him, this is 1930s Germany and he will serve his time in a concentration camp rather than prison. Sally, however, treats them as one and the same, and it is his prison code of working an angle while giving others their place that sees him survive, and flourish, if such a term fits the meagre circumstances.Prison code also means never snitching, and it is this dilemma that will decide his fate.Based on a true story, The Counterfeiters leans more towards prison drama than out-and-out Holocaust movie. The horrors of the camps intrudes only occasionally - that is the guilt-ridden dilemma of these prisoners - and mostly off-screen, as when the god-forsaken 'shoe squad' march next door, and we witness one of them being executed only by virtue of the bullets that ricochet through the fence and endanger the precious forgery team. There is division in the ranks of the Jew forgers, between those who want to survive and those who want to sabotage the war effort. As the war draws to a close, their aims slowly converge.Karl Markovics excels as street-wise habitual criminal Sally. He scoffs at left-wing ideologue Burger, believing his jailbird instincts will get him through this ordeal. The wake-up call comes when he is cleaning the latrine, on his knees, and Hauptscharführer Holst, the camp's chief sadist, let's him know in no uncertain terms how he regards his contribution to the war effort, and indeed his very humanity.The film bookends its opening and closing with Sally in Monaco, having survived the war, ready to enjoy his ill-gotten gains. Needless to say, the monetary gain soon loses its allure.Well acted, technically excellent, The Counterfieters entertains rather than provokes thought, but is worth viewing nonetheless.