Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Karl Markovics | ... | Solomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch | |
August Diehl | ... | Burger | |
Devid Striesow | ... | Sturmbannführer Friedrich Herzog | |
Martin Brambach | ... | Hauptscharführer Holst | |
August Zirner | ... | Dr. Klinger | |
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Veit Stübner | ... | Atze |
Sebastian Urzendowsky | ... | Kolya | |
Andreas Schmidt | ... | Zilinski | |
Tilo Prückner | ... | Hahn | |
Lenn Kudrjawizki | ... | Loszek | |
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Marian Kalus | ... | Plappler |
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Norman Stoffregen | ... | Abramovic |
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Bernd Raucamp | ... | KZ-Insasse Dusche |
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Gode Benedix | ... | 1. KZ-Insasse |
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Oliver Kanter | ... | 2. KZ-Insasse |
The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936. Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a mischievous life of cards, booze, and women in Berlin during the Nazi-era. Suddenly his luck runs dry when arrested by Superintendent Friedrich Herzog. Immediately thrown into the Mauthausen concentration camp, Salomon exhibits exceptional skills there and is soon transferred to the upgraded camp of Sachsenhausen. Upon his arrival, he once again comes face to face with Herzog, who is there on a secret mission. Hand-picked for his unique skill, Salomon and a group of professionals are forced to produce fake foreign currency under the program Operation Bernhard. The team, which also includes detainee Adolf Burger, is given luxury barracks for their assistance. But while Salomon attempts to weaken the economy of Germany's allied opponents, Adolf refuses to use his skills for Nazi profit and would like to... Written by Sony Pictures Classics
I thought the film was excellent on a number of grounds; the acting by the main players was uniformly good,I suppose one could carp about the main Nazi in that it was the traditional mixture of ' jolly fine fellow when out of uniform and with blonde wife and children but nightmare when faced with the Untermenschen in the camp'. The main actor was unknown to me and something of an anti-hero but the gradual emergence of his positive sides was well done.The concentration on life in the special part of the camp where only the sounds of shouts and gunshots penetrate was very well portrayed and the entire film gripped me from start to finish. I suppose there were no amazing revelations apart from the basis of the story but that was more than enough and I recommend it highly