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The Counterfeiters

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The Counterfeiters (2008)

94%
96%
86%
N/A
N/A
94 %
Reviews Counted: 118 Fresh: 111  Rotten:7 Average Rating: 7.7/10
 
Consensus: The Counterfeiters is a gripping account of one prisoner's moral dilemma, superbly portrayed by Karl Markovics.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for some strong violence, brief sexuality/nudity and language

Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

Theatrical Release: Feb 22, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $5,351,533

Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: August Diehl, Karl Markovics, Devid Striesow, Dolores Chaplin, August Zirner

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Screenwriter: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Producer: Josef Aichholzer, Nina Bohlmann, Babette Schroder

Reviews

 
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Ratings Image
N/A

What would you do if your only chance of survival involved aiding the Nazi regime?

Full Review | comment Comment
08/12/08
Tricia Olszewski
Let's Not Listen
Ratings Image
4/5

El resultado es notable, tanto como inquietante y hasta quizás incómoda reflexión sobre el instinto de supervivencia del ser humano, y también como pieza cinematográfica.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/11/08
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total
Ratings Image
74/100

Ruzowitzky does a fine job of capturing the claustrophia of the setting, as well as conveying the moral complexity of these characters' choices

Full Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide
Ratings Image
3/4

Markovics expertly projects every craven instinct and heartfelt yearning of the complex protagonist, making The Counterfeiters an experience as satisfying emotionally as intellectually. [Blu-Ray]

Full Review | comment Comment
07/30/08
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
Ratings Image
4/5

A bold study of unbearable moral ambiguity.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/30/08
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com
Ratings Image
2.5/4

THE COUNTERFEITERS is an accurate procedural, just not a very engrossing or moving film.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/22/08
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine
Ratings Image
N/A

This richly layered allegorical clash between a criminal and a communist, pits the urge for survival despite one's debasement, against defiance, collective rebellion and martyrdom - the very impulses that advance history, but at enormous cost.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/13/08
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze
Ratings Image
3.5/5

Karl Markovics is exceptionally well cast. He's not wildly expressive, but his physicality -- a small frame, a nose that bends northwest due to events we can only imagine -- is enough to carry the film's ambiguities.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/09/08
Robert Davis
Paste Magazine
Ratings Image
4/5

The winner of this year's Oscar for best foreign-language film puts devils, as well as angels, on the head of the pin.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/08/08
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald
Ratings Image
4.5/5

Skilfully acted, written and directed, The Counterfeiters is a powerful and provocative work.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/08/08
Leigh Paatsch
Herald Sun (Melbourne)
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4.5/5

This Oscar-winning film ranks as the most unnerving, disturbing, true-life account yet of endurance under Nazi oppression.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/08/08
Jim Schembri
The Age (Australia)
Ratings Image
3/4

The heart of the story is the horrible choice of survival, while helping your oppressors, or fighting them with sabotage and risking your life and others.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/08
Lori Hoffman
Atlantic City Weekly
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3/4

Gripping, but would have more impact if it had been staged -- like Paul Verhoeven's 'Black Book' -- in the straightforward manner of a classic Hollywood suspense film.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/23/08
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
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3.5/5

Ruzowitzky has some fine performers in the three key roles but there is a hint of unsubtlety in some of the other characters and situations. The obvious is rammed home.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/15/08
David Stratton
At the Movies
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B+

This dark arty film also has some entertainment value due to Austrian actor Markovics and his ability to inhabit his complicated character in a convincing way.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/10/08
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
N/A

Rarely has a film set the starkest of basic moral questions in such sharp-edged yet subtle relief. . . . like one of the master forger's brazenly passed-off copies--so bold, unflinching and brilliant that, to any eye, it's flawless.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/08/08
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
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N/A

An especially impressive achievement.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/06/08
Thomas Peyser
Style Weekly (Richmond, VA)
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3.5/5

mia istoria synarpastika alliotiki, apallagmeni ap' ta epanalambanomena enohika symplegmata tis pleiopsifias ton antistoihon taksidion stin epohi ton Nazi, kai mpoliasmeni me enan aprosdokita skliro kai tairiasto synaisthimatiko realismo, anthropon poy ks

Full Review | comment Comment
05/06/08
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
Ratings Image
N/A

It won the foreign language Oscar and there is nothing fake or contrived about this astonishing true story about the men in a German concentration camp who fought their own little war for survival.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/01/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Ratings Image
3.5/4

The black and white blueprints of movies like Schindler's List have been tossed out, replaced with one that bleeds gray.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/30/08
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
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