“It is an honour to arrest the world’s best counterfeiter!”

The Counterfeiters, an Academy Award winning Austrian film, tells a true tale of the survival of an unconventional hero, who could be called an anti-hero, Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) based on Salomon Smolianoff, during World War II. It may not be hugely revelatory, the questions it raises may not be completely fresh, but there is a vibrancy to it that raises the film’s unsettling moral dilemma to a point where it becomes emotionally gripping. That would also mean that morality issues would need to be explored as fully as possible, and I think this film simply misses that mark. It is still utterly captivating.

It is 1936 in Berlin and Sorowitsch is one of the world’s best counterfeiters. He is a master forger of money, passports etc, and then he is arrested by Friedrich Herzog (Devid Striesow) and thrown into a concentration camp. The film is told almost entirely as an extended flashback, and immediately from the opening scenes in Monte Carlo, we know that he will survive, one of the lucky few who did. That is not the point though; the fascination that comes with the character (played to sketchy perfection by Karl Markovics) is in the way he survives.

While in the Mauthausen concentration camp, he uses his forgery skills to paint portraits of influential SS members and so on, a skill that gets him into the oddly comfortable centre of the “Operation Bernhard” when he is transferred to the Sachsenhausen camp in 1944. This late-war operation, which Herzog is ironically in charge of, would eventually become the largest counterfeiting operation of all time, where Sorowitsch and his fellow counterfeiters, made up of various artistic types, would make near-perfect copies of British and American currency to be used to destroy the Allies’ economies and possibly give Hitler more power to continue the war.

While those involved in the operation lived relatively comfortable lives for years, less artistically talented prisoners went through some of the most horrific human suffering in history. That, along with the moral battle between the ethically rigid Burger (August Diehl), who was determined to stall or sabotage the operation at any cost, and Sorowitsch, are just a few of the many uses of juxtaposition in the film that are incredibly perceptive but not always entirely explored.

Sorowitsch’s ethics are questionable and so are his methods of survival. Sure, they are cunning and observant, but it takes a little more than that to make it all worth it, something Burger doesn’t fail to remind him. However, Sorowitsch does not only consider one aspect of the matter, it seems as though he considers everything; the Nazi demand of his progress, the counterfeiters wanting to sabotage the operation and his loyalties to his fellow prisoners. Both Burger and Sorowitsch are noble. As the viewer, it is difficult to place judgement onto either man because they have their personal reasons for their choices, which are conveyed with narrative ease.

Sorowitsch may be saving his fellow artistic group members as well as himself, and in the end Burger would be saving his ethical beliefs and, essentially, doing what is right, even if it not going to guarantee his survival. Where Sorowitsch’s actions are practical and expedient, Burgers are pure and ethical, and the film weaves its way through these conflicting ideas, with Herzog’s interference thrown if for good measure. The films main argument is whether is it better to be complicit or to be dead, and while it is explored in detail, it never feels like it is enough.

Karl Markovics’ portrayal of Sorowitsch makes him out to be more of an artist than a counterfeiter. He navigates through his actual artistic work he creates in order to survive as well as the survival mannerisms of his personality such as his thoughts, how well he conceals his emotions until the right moment, how he does not allow acclaim to interfere with his actions, his surprising sympathy for those who may not make it through all the horrors, and so on, to create a perfect characterisation of a criminal with substance. He is not a typical hero, but the audience has no choice but to identify with him. We are always with him; we know nothing more than he does and that adds to the gritty, claustrophobic feel the film has, which thankfully never stops it from feeling accessible.

Markovics’ quietly subdued performance as a resourceful lone-wolf does not turn the film into a one man show, rather a historical portrait of one of the most well known human genocides in history that tells a story not all have seen before with a few entertaining characters to boot. Director Stefan Ruzowitzky tends to try to force his themes upon the viewer, but the lack of simplicity in some parts of the film do not damage the overall complexity of the film, which is apparent. His technique is not completely unpredictable either but the story is and so are certain technical aspects which are startling and refreshing.

Your enjoyment of the film or what you take out of it depends on your moral standings and ethics, but the arguments in this film are strong enough for your thoughts not to matter. There is no traditional hero, nor are there simple answers to the seemingly opaque questions solicited, but this delicate cinematic expression of human defiance is one of the most genuinely absorbing Holocaust works of art that still had room to be better.

Fatac Rating: ***½

The Counterfeiters. Directed and Adapted by Stefan Ruzowitzky based on the book by Adolf Burger. Starring: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zirner, Veit Strubner, Sebastian Urzendowsky. Running Time: 98 minutes. Age Restriction: TBC. USA 2008. Rating out of five stars.