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KGMB9 55 Years
Movie Review: 'The Counterfeiters' Print E-mail
Written by Terry Hunter - thunter@kgmb9.com   
April 12, 2008 05:09 PM

 
An Austrian film called "The Counterfeiters" won the Academy Award for Best Foreign film, and it's playing at Kahala Mall right now.

"The Counterfeiters" is a strong drama about what happens to a Jewish counterfeiter when he's arrested for his crimes and put into a concentration camp during World War II. There he's put in charge of the Nazi effort to forge the British pound and the U.S. Dollar. In return for that collaboration he and other Jewish printers and engravers get special treatment.

And that creates an interesting moral dilemma. The prisoners know they have to cooperate with the Nazis to survive, but they also realize how much they're aiding their enemy.

The film begins when the successful forger named Sally is arrested. The man who arrests him becomes a Nazi officer a few years later and he is the one who puts Sally in charge of the counterfeiting operation.

But a fellow prisoner, a printer named Burger is upset. "Can't you see what's happening here?" he says to Sally. "The German's are bankrupt. We're financing the Nazi war effort."

"So?" Sally replies. "Are you suggesting sabotage in a concentration camp?"

"At least, it would be a sign," the printer says.

Sally: "Nobody's prepared to die for a principle."

Printer: "That's why the Nazi system works."

Exactly so, but if you were in the same situation, what would you do? Most of the men feel guilty about the special treatment they get, but would they be willing to join the sick and starving Jews a few yards from their workplace?

"The Counterfeiters" is an absorbing movie with a fine performance by Karl Markovics as the master criminal who goes along with the Nazis but covers up for the shortcomings of his co-worker's shortcomings even at the risk of his own life.

If you like serious, well made made movies that give you something to think about, you shouldn't miss "The Counterfeiters."


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Last Updated ( April 12, 2008 05:09 PM )
 
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