| | | It Takes a Clever Man to Make Money. It Takes a Genius to Stay Alive.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, Subtitled, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
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?
"A swift and suspenseful thriller." A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"This poses some tricky moral questions, and its troubling ambiguities rank a cut above the dubious uplift of "Schindler's List."" Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"Original, accomplished. A survival tale that turns Schindler's List on its head." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"Swift and compelling..." Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"A very fine and curiously moving film. A true story told with cool wit and subtle tension." Richard Schickel, Time Magazine
Editor's Note
Winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Stefan Ruzowitzky's THE COUNTERFEITERS is the first film from Austria to ever receive that prestigious honor. Based on the memoir by Adolf Burger, the film tells the inspiring story of a pre-World War II criminal whose cunning and fiery spirit enable him to overcome deadly odds and survive life in Germany's Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Before the war, Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) was one of the world's most ingenious counterfeiters, until he was finally caught and arrested by Friedrich Herzog (Devid Striesow). Years later, as the Nazi movement is in full swing, the nefariously charming Herzog--now a Nazi leader--recruits Sorowitsch to lead an enormous counterfeiting project called Operation Bernhard. Placed in a horrific position of moral corruption, Sorowitsch is forced to decide whether or not to save his own life or prevent the Nazis from causing further damage on an even grander scale. His fellow prisoner Adolf Burger (August Diehl) is determined to sabotage the operation, but Sorowitsch understands how dangerous a proposition this is.While THE COUNTERFEITERS is based on real-life tragedy, it never loses its primary objective as a work of dramatic entertainment. This deft balancing act is what keeps Ruzowitzky's moving tale from becoming too bleak and depressing. The result is a deeply impressive work that addresses a topic not often explored in Holocaust cinema--the dilemma of victims who were forced to act immorally and illegally for the betterment of their captors. Powerfully acted by Markovics, THE COUNTERFEITERS is the type of film that the Oscars were made for.
| Features | Adolf Burger's Historical Artifacts | | Audio Commentary With Director Stefan Ruzowitzky | | Audio: German, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Deleted Scenes | | Dubbed: French | | Featurette: The Making Of The Counterfeiters | | Interactive Menus | | Interviews With Real-Life Counterfeiter Adolf Burger, Actor Karl Markovics & Director Stefan Ruzowitzky | | Q&A With Stefan Ruzowitzky | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 8/5/2008 |
| Running Time: 99 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 23920 | | UPC: 00043396239203 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (2008) |  | The Counterfeiters, Winner, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year |
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| | Professional Reviews | Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "Markovics gives a brilliantly understated performance in an engrossing, powerful film that justifies its billing as this season's THE LIVES OF OTHERS." 11/01/2007 p.149Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Superbly designed and incisively acted....Based on a true story, THE COUNTERFEITERS is anchored in Markovics' central turn..." 11/01/2007 p.49 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] a robust dramatic drive and thrilling pace....Ruzowitzky accordingly ramps up the tension, but all the while he's careful to respect the harsh reality in which his thoughtful movie is firmly rooted." 11/01/2007 p.53 Box Office
"The moral dilemmas marshaled by Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky prove absolutely gripping, and the whole film is alive with style an intelligence." 03/01/2008 p.50 New York Times
"Mr. Markovics, without sentimentalizing the character, allows us glimpses of his soul. His performance is a tour de force of concentration and understatement..." 02/22/2008 Entertainment Weekly
"[Markovics] inhabits his not-nice character with such conviction...that we're freed to consider him as a man, not just a victim -- an authentic gift in a fascinating story of faking it." -- Grade: A- 03/07/2008 p.69 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "The questions this accomplished film raises are intended to pervade your emotions, forcing you to qualify your pity and your sympathies even in the face of such shocking sadness." 04/01/2008 p.108 Variety 7 of 10
The moral quandary of Nazi complicity is revisited in taut drama "The Counterfeiters," which tells the true story of a disparate group of imprisoned artists, financiers and swindlers secretly assembled in a concentration camp to forge millions of pound and dollar notes to support the German war effort...Austrian-born helmer Stefan Ruzowitzky continues his move away from the visual surface gloss of early work, including German horror franchise "Anatomy," towards the rougher, more jittery approach pioneered in his previous effort, war-set English-lingo comedic misfire "All the Queen's Men." New pic reps fine balance of style with story...As in recent Hungarian camp drama "Fateless," the horror here comes not from explicit atrocities -- though pic has abrupt, jagged violence -- but from the large-scale tragedy implied on the other side of the workshop compound's thin plywood walls. Random screams and gunshots are heard at all hours, though the specialists themselves are treated to good food, comfortable bedding, piped-in opera music, and even, incongruously, a ping-pong table. When the walls finally come down, the gulf between their health and the camp's squalor neatly underscores deeper moral ramifications...Nuanced interplay among Markovics, Diehl and Striesow is pic's main focus, with supporting players vividly drawn. - Eddie Cockrell
ReelViews 8 of 10
Despite a title that makes it sound like a heist movie, The Counterfeiters is actually a World War II tale. It is not, however, a traditional war film. Instead, it takes a hard look at one of the most controversial and ethically dubious activities of the war: Jewish collaboration with the Nazis. Like Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone, which explored the existences of the Sonderkommandos in Auschwitz, The Counterfeiters examines many of the same issues from a slightly different perspective. The bottom line is the same, however: Is it morally reprehensible to exchange services that help the Nazis in return for a less harsh life?...From an historical perspective, the story is interesting because it shows a different side of the war than what we're used to observing in motion pictures. Ruzowitzky depicts the care and attention to detail that went into the operation. The result was a pound note so authentic that it passed inspection by the Bank of England (who pronounced it to be "not a forgery"). This represents the backdrop to the struggle of conscience endured by the main characters, and that's where The Counterfeiters' core strength lies. There is no pat resolution because, although the internment in the camp ends, the emotional scars remain. (That's what the bookend sequences illustrate.) - James Berardinelli
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