Save yourself? Or save everyone else? Perhaps one of drama’s greatest dilemmas, the question is also an incredibly difficult one to set up with realism, conviction, and consequence. And that is exactly what “The Counterfeiters” does and what makes it such great cinema.
Set against the dark solstice of Nazi forces in World War II, “The Counterfeiters” tells the story of Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), the world’s greatest monetary counterfeiter. We meet Sally in a world of ease and extravagance; his art pays nicely. Soon, however, the Berlin Police raid his chateau and our hero finds himself in the painful world of German concentration camps. Sally’s artistic talent shines through even at his lowest point, however, and the Nazi prison guards soon stop the beatings, and even work detail, in exchange for portraits and sketches. His craft soon brings him to the attention of Nazi higher-ups, and he is recruited into a secret counterfeiting program designed to save the bankrupt German war machine while destroying the English and American economies.
But Salomon’s gift is also his curse, and he is forced to chose between creating perfect replicas of the U.S. dollar“which we all know he is capable of”or sabotaging the operation to help defeat the horrid Nazi forces. Of course, his life hinges upon this decision. A loner but not a misanthrope, Sally is forced to come to terms with his own sense of self-preservation in a bloody, frostbitten world where literally millions of lives are at stake. Save yourself, or save everyone else?
Written and directed by the more-than-capable Stefan Ruzowitzky (his screen play is adapted from the book “The Devil’s Workshop” by Adolf Burger), “The Counterfeiters” is an intensely stunning and emotional film that catches the feel of its period incredibly well. From script to sound design, this is an almost perfectly crafted film. Benedict Neuenfel’s cinematography, however, stands out as one of the film’s most attractive features. Indeed, it is hard to look at 110 minutes of these men and women’s work without being moved by its forceful imagery, beautiful subject matter and intense tone.
I had the benevolent dumb luck to wander into a midnight screening of “The Counterfeiters” on the last night of the Telluride Film Festival without knowing anything about it. An hour and forty minutes later, I sat there, glad to have had the fate to wander into the best film playing that week. After the screening, Ruzowitzky took the stage and struck me as particularly thankful to have had the chance to make such a film. A huge smile on his face, he had the rare look of a man both content with his work and humble in front of it.
“The Counterfeiters” is unique in a world of multimillion-dollar tent pole features marketed to a shrinking category of potential product buyers. An action-comedy-romance-Nazi-spy-art-counterfeiter-war-Holocaust-period piece, the film has a unique blend of high production values and directorial vision now found in fewer and fewer theaters. This is an instance of heartfelt, talented and significant filmmaking, compelling on a level that is seldom found.
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