The Counterfeiters film review
Here is a review of the movie The Counterfeiters or Die Fälscher, which was released in UK cinemas in October 2007.
The Counterfeiters is a German film set in the second world war. Its a dramatisation of a true story about a group of Jewish people living in a concentration camp who are being used by the Nazi’s to produce a huge amount of counterfeited money with which to fund the war. The film focuses on the dilemma this put these people under – if you make the money you are helping to finance the destruction of your people, if you don’t you will get shot. The question is..whats more important – one person, or the needs of thousands. Its a question many of us would answer with no problem hypothetically, but would we really say the same if actually had to make that decision for real?
The film is shot beautifully, and in the opening scenes the visuals and colour are truly vibrant, great attention is lavished on the golds inside a bank and the bright colours of a party scene. Later in the film the simple palette of grays inside the camp and gritty visuals reflect the change in mood very well. There is even time for sensuality within the opening scenes when the camera teases us with the naked curves of a full bodied woman, unusual to see in such a film as this.
The film is one of the first to be made by Germans that is actually set in Nazi Germany. Downfall was one of the first, and it presented Hitler as a human, insane but real, which is far more frightening than the usual monster we see. If he and his officers are real, then of course, this can happen again. In this film one SS officer appears to have a very human side, he claims he used to be a communist. However he is still doing evil things, and simply blaming this on everyone but himself. I imagine this sort of justification must have gone on a lot.
The Counterfeiters is one of the most engrossing films I have seen recently, and is certainly on a par with another realistic film about difficult times made in Germany last year, The Lives of Others, which dealt with the period of the Statsi in the 80’s. Die Falscher tackled an interesting subject with sensitivity and as well as being a true story, was a fascinating one.
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The official Die Fälscher site is in German and contains very little, there is also the Die Fälscher imdb entry with the usual cast list and details.
I saw this film at the Duke of Yorks cinema in Brighton, a great arthouse cinema.
