2007, Austria/Germany
Crime, Drama, History, War
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Extended version:
It would be nice to think that everyone has the ability to be a martyr, that each person values the lives of thousands of human beings above his own. Sometimes a person only has enough strength to ensure his own survival.
Based on Adolf Burger's book, The Devil's Workshop, the film The Counterfeiters features Burger but focuses on master forger, Salomon Sorowitsch. Based on the life of Salomon Smolianoff, Russian Sorowitsch led a frivolous existence of wine and women funded by his talents as a master counterfeiter. Partying one night too long before he could escape from Berlin, he is arrested by a Nazi counterfeit squad and sent away to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
Branded with the green triangle of habitual criminals, fellow inmates keep their distance from the prisoner within their ranks. He does not win favor from the others when he uses his artistic talents to charm the Nazi soldiers by drawing their portraits, but this seemingly sycophantic behavior allows him to escape work detail and sneak food into this hollow belly.
Ultimately, Sorowitsch is singled out with other tradesmen -- those who would be handy in a secret Nazi counterfeit plan Operation Bernhard. Run by the same man who arrested him in Berlin, Officer Herzog allows for a great deal of comfort despite the horrors outside of their walls. In a brightly white world that counters the diluted blues of typical camp conditions, the men are given soft beds and a clean environment filled with music. Ironically, Herzog recognizes the importance of positive motivation. He, like Sorowitsch, is looking out for himself and hopes that the success of this mission will lead him to better things outside of the Nazi regime.
The men of the counterfeit lab are colored by their previous experiences in the war. Some have been to Auschwitz, some have lost or are missing family, and some, like Sorowitsch, lost their family before the war and have become distant to the distresses of others. Burger belongs to the former two categories, a rebel who tries to instigate sabotage and is willing to risk his own life to stop the fake financing of the Nazi war effort.
As the martyr and the criminal continue to clash, it becomes apparent that neither is perfect and yet in order for one to succeed, there must be compromise. The film maintains a tight focus on their barricaded buildings, and only when Sorowitsch glimpses the realities of the horrific conditions just outside their doors does he begin to acknowledge the depth of his actions. When one man can make a difference, will he be clouded by his own safety or the survival of others?
Director Stefan Ruzowitzky explores this tough question of morality in a place that has lost all sense of humanity. Karl Markovics subtly portrays the hardened but not heartless Sorowitsch and August Diehl poignantly portrays Burger. Together, they deliver a story of human weakness and strength under the inhumane conditions of the Nazi regime.