Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent but underrated film

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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.

There have been countless films about WWII and the holocaust--lots. I have watched many of them but my family refuses. As my oldest daughter has said many times "I know what happened then. It was awful and evil. And, I've seen enough of them!". However, "The Counterfeiters" is not just another film about the holocaust but discussed an obscure but true story about a small number of Jewish prisoners who were able to spare their lives by working WITH the Nazis. Let me explain. The Nazis came up with a plan to destroy the economies of their enemies. First, they wanted to produce tons and tons of British pounds and flood the market with them. Then, do the same with the American dollar. And, while most may not know it, they were successful in producing perfect qualities pounds and dollars. This film is about how they did it and why, ultimately, the plan didn't change the outcome of the war.The film has some wonderful acting, a taut script and recreates the horror of the concentration camps. It's not pleasant but it IS also very fascinating--particularly the story of the hero (??) of the film--a cheap criminal with a talent for forgeries. Well worth seeing and a film that took the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

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.

I only discovered this film while showing my dad how to watch films on his pc using the BBC iplayer. As yet I have not yet even watched it. I will and I fully expect it to be a very good and interesting film. Having browsed through most of its reviews not once (as far as I can see) has any one even hinted at the wonderful 1981 BBC mini-series Private Schultz staring the late and sadly missed Ian Richardson and Michael Elphick. Surely I can't be the only person to notice that both deal with the same story. Albeit that the BBC version has a lighter dark comedy treatment?Private Schultz is now at long last available on BBC DVD. It has only relatively recently been released. Prior to its release on DVD some very silly over sensitive people believed that it showed Jews during the war to be forgers, thieves etc...what absolute rubbish, and thank goodness the people in control of this matter have seen sense. As I've said even without seeing The Counterfeiters I'm sure I'll enjoy it...But I really must recommend Private Schulz to anyone who enjoyed this film Laurance O'Neill