Day 130: The Counterfeiters

"I'm myself. Everyone else is everyone else."

Survival is often an ironic thing. Through hypothetical questions, sometimes we venture a guess as to how we’d react when placed in a moment of danger. Our answers, often shrouded in humanistic ideals, usually are placated with limits. We’re willing to go to one level, but never above and beyond to do something we find morally questionable. Oh, how things change when a hypothetical situation becomes reality. Suddenly what was an issue of won’t becomes a declaration of will. Of course the real life situations can vary, but there probably has been no survivor story that matches the fervor of the Holocaust. Now, usually when a film based on the Holocaust comes around, more often than not it’s treated as Oscar bait. Certainly, there are some films that exploit a mass murder for prestige purposes, but every once in awhile there comes a Holocaust film that’s intentions are honest and worthwhile. Enter in  The Counterfeiters, a game of survival that pits two Jewish prisoners against one another as their views of survival and morality clash amongst the S.S.’ brutality.

Based on a grizzly true story, The Counterfeiters follows Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a counterfeiter of great distinction, as he’s placed in a concentration camp. Knowing full well the capabilities of Sorowitsch and his duping abilities, the German officers see a golden opportunity to fuel their agenda. So, Sorowitsch is transferred to another concentration camp (Sachenhausen) to join a selection of prisoners who form a team of counterfeiters. The sole purpose of this collection of imprisoned Jews is to replicate the British pound and  the American dollar as a means to cripple the economies of Britain and the United States. The conditions in this particular camp are impeccable when compared to the death camps that were littered across Europe. In many ways, Sorowitsch and his fellow counterfeiters are treated like relative rock stars. Of course, there are heinous acts and verbal venom that is spewed onto Sorowitsch and his fellow prisoners, but they’re living a rather stable life. The problem persists in the fact that by aiding the Germans in creating Allied money, Sorowitsch and his fellow prisons are feeding the German war machine, and conversely, assisting in the persecution of their fellow brethren. It’s a notion that initially flies over the head of Sorowitsch simply because he’s focusing on self preservation.

Despite his steadfast determination to make it out alive, Sorowitsch’s conscious takes a hit when fellow counterfeiter Adolf Burger (August Diehl) leads an uprising against his German captors. With many of the Jewish prisoners seeing Sorowitsch as a leader, he’s left to decide where his ties lie: out behind the walls where his fellow prisoners are dying mercilessly or in his own sense of survival. What is the merit of survival if it perpetuates the mass killing of your people? This ethical question is pushed further as Sorowitsch battles with Burger, who is determined to sabotage the counterfeiting process by any means necessary. Heightening this desperation for a moral center is the impending doom that manifests in the mind of German guards who feel the breath of Allied soldiers breathing down their neck. Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, The Counterfeiters is a haunting look at moral ambiguity against the backdrop of the Nazi’s human cleansing. Although the film is impeccably crafted from a historical perspective, its laurels are rested on the battle that resides in Sorowitsch’s heart. Does he fight for survival or principle?

It’s a question that is terrifically played up by Karl Markovics, who gives Sorowitsch a condemned soul, one that is constantly stirring about looking for an answer to a complicated question. Markovic is especially great in his role considering his ability to change Sorowtisch’s  turmoil from extrinsic to intrinsic. Initially, Sorowitsch’s problem is of his confinement, but it evolves into a burden that cripples his conscious. Prodding Markovics is August Diehl whose Burger pushes Sorowtisch in the direction of mutiny. Their ability to go back and forth often sets the screen ablaze. Sometimes it even feels like the Nazi’s themselves are lesser enemies when Sorowitsch and Burger meet face to face. Aside from the tremendous acting, the film gets a lot of credit for not exploiting the Holocaust. Writer/director Ruzowitzky does a fantastic job of keeping the focus on the film’s moral center while still acknowledging the Holocaust’s atrocities without any overbearing sentimentality. It’s a tough task, but everyone involved is able to evade the tropes that invade most film recounts of the Holocaust. Yet, despite the film being deeply rooted in the Holocaust, the power of the film and its look at self preservation goes beyond this tragedy. Instead, it can be applied to just about any situation where survival and principle are off setting. If  The Counterfeiters has anything to say about the situation it’s that survival is merely a forgery of a previous life if one’s conscious is haunted by the decisions of the past.