MIT Lecture Series Committee

Rated R
98 minutes

view trailer

The Counterfeiters (2007)

Writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky explores the moral corrosion of Nazi complicity with this tightly wound adaptation of Adolph Burger's fact-based book "The Devil's Workshop." Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) may be a talented artist at heart, but his desire for wealth has driven him to use his creativity for more nefarious means. Arrested by the police inspector Herzog (David Striesow) at the onset of World War II, Sorowitsch is sent to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp. It's not long before Salomon's thinly veiled opportunism earns him a relatively comfortable position as the camp's resident sketch artist, and five years later he is mysteriously swept away to Sachsenhausen. Upon arriving at the camp Sorowitsch discovers that Herzog, now a commandant, is attempting to destabilize the economies of the Allies while simultaneously funding the Nazi war machine by assembling a special team of counterfeit artists to create millions in fraudulent pounds and dollars. As the operation gets underway, Sorowitsch finds the efforts of the team continually undermined by unyieldingly idealistic collotype specialist Adolph Burger (August Diehl). In the months that follow, the team wrestles with their consciences as Axis forces are gradually overwhelmed by Allied might. [www.allmovie.com]

Sponsored by MISTI (MIT Germany).

2007 Academy Award WINNER: Best Foreign Film

Far more than another Holocaust drama; it's an examination of complex moral shadows that make us capable of cowardice and courage at the same time.
      -- Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall. Read this review.