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By EDDIE COCKRELL

The moral quandary of Nazi complicity is revisited in taut drama "The Counterfeiters," which tells the true story of a disparate group of imprisoned artists, financiers and swindlers secretly assembled in a concentration camp to forge millions of pound and dollar notes to support the German war effort. Tough subject matter and a crafty lead perf from Austrian-born tube vet Karl Markovics as a Russian Jew who goes along to get along will earn genuine interest from fests, distribs and ancillary providers.
A brief preamble introduces 45-year-old Salomon Sorowitsch (Markovics), a gaunt, hatchet-faced man in a threadbare suit who's appeared in the gambler's mecca of Monte Carlo at the end of World War II with a suitcase full of crisp American banknotes.

Following success at the tables and a roll in the hay that reveals a concentration camp number on his arm, story flashes back to "Sally's" halcyon days in 1936 Berlin as a talented forger and enthusiastic bon vivant. "Why earn money by making art?" he says. "Earning money by making money is much easier."

The gravy train dries up when he's arrested by police inspector Herzog (David Striesow) and sent to the particularly violent Mauthausen camp. Currying favor with captors via a blend of obsequiousness and opportunism, Sally is soon the resident sketch artist, before being mysteriously transferred, five years later, to Sachsenhausen.

He's been hand-picked by Herzog, now a commandant, to coordinate a team of experts forced to counterfeit pounds, then dollars, to destabilize respective economies and fill Nazi coffers. But not everyone's as pragmatic as Sorowitsch, who finds the dollar project continuously sabotaged by stubbornly idealistic collotype specialist Adolf Burger (August Diehl), on whose memoir script is based. As moral debates and stalling strategies swirl amongst the counterfeiters, Herzog's impatience grows and the Nazi war machine begins to falter.

Austrian-born helmer Stefan Ruzowitzky continues his move away from the visual surface gloss of early work, including German horror franchise "Anatomy," towards the rougher, more jittery approach pioneered in his previous effort, war-set English-lingo comedic misfire "All the Queen's Men." New pic reps fine balance of style with story.

As in recent Hungarian camp drama "Fateless," the horror here comes not from explicit atrocities -- though pic has abrupt, jagged violence -- but from the large-scale tragedy implied on the other side of the workshop compound's thin plywood walls. Random screams and gunshots are heard at all hours, though the specialists themselves are treated to good food, comfortable bedding, piped-in opera music, and even, incongruously, a ping-pong table. When the walls finally come down, the gulf between their health and the camp's squalor neatly underscores deeper moral ramifications.

Nuanced interplay among Markovics, Diehl and Striesow is pic's main focus, with supporting players vividly drawn.

Other tech aspects are fine, led by meticulous production design of counterfeiters' lair. Pic is skedded for mid-March German release.

Camera (color), Benedict Neuenfels; editor, Britta Nahler; music, Marius Ruhland; production designer, Isidor Wimmer; costume designer, Nicole Fischnaller; sound (Dolby SRD & SR), Torsten Heinemann; assistant director, Anton Maria Aigner. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Competition), Feb. 9, 2007. Running time: 99 MINS.

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the US Region A Blu-ray Disc release of The Counterfeiters on 5th August 2008 priced at $38.96 SRP. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters tells the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a swindler who made a name for himself as Berlin's "King of the Counterfeiters." However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he's arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. With the German army on the verge of bankruptcy, Sorowitsch makes a sobering deal with his captors: in exchange for a comfortable bed, good food and fair treatment, Sorowitsch, along with the other hand-picked specialists, must counterfeit bank notes to fund the Nazi War effort. If he does as they say, he lives another day. If he rebels, he faces the same fate as the rest of the camp's prisoners. But if he lives, will he be able to live with himself?

Arriving day-and-date and coded for Region A, the disc is BD Live enabled and extras are presented in standard definition. Features include:

* 1080P 1.85:1 Widescreen
* German (original language) and French Dolby True HD 5.1
* English, English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
* Commentary with Director Stefan Ruzowitzky
* Making of The Counterfeiters
* Interviews with real-life counterfeiter Adolf Burger, actor Karl Markovics and director Stefan Ruzowitzky
* Adolf Burger's Historical Artifacts
* Q&A with Stefan Ruzowitzky
* Deleted Scenes

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