Review of The Counterfeiters (2007) by Mirko B — 25 Sep 2011

Stefan Ruzowitsky's 2007 film is based on a true story about a secret forgery operation in a Nazi concentration camp. A group of Jewish prisoners are selected to participate in the operation because of their expertise in printing, which in turn means that their lives are spared while their families and friends disappear in the gas chambers. Some of the selected prisoners decide to survive and the others can't handle the moral repercussions of the whole thing...

When(and if) you manage to get past the concentration camp setting and its bizarre inner world, you are faced with a moral dilemma par exellence: how far is one willing to go to save his own life? Even more so when it includes collaboration with the very people who are responsible for the demise of your world...Salomon is determined to survive and has to swallow a few very bitter pills in order to do that. The Nazi humiliation that he is subjected to climaxes in the scene where the Nazi officer Holst, unable to hide his despise of the Jews, pees on him in the barrack lavatories. Adolf (August Diehl), an idealist and revolutionary who ends up in Salomon's group, is desperate to rebel against the Nazis, which creates a conflict between him and Salomon, whom he rejects as a "sold soul". But Salomon proves the exact opposite, when he saves him from the gas chambers. Loszek, a third prisoner, is driven to suicide when he finds his children's passports among the documents which were taken from the murdered prisoners...

The director paints a very convincing image of everyday life in prison. Probably the most shocking scene is the one where the soldiers force the forgers into the showers. The reaction of the one of them who expected gas instead of water, when waters starts dribbling down his face, is unforgettable.

Watching this was such a disturbing experience. It leaves a long-lasting impression on you, and makes you ask yourself: what would I have had done?