Actor Karl Markovics in The Counterfeiters (above), a man with a great Buster Keaton-like deadpan face that speaks volumes without even lifting an eyebrow, and director Stefan Ruzowitzky (below, directing in the center of a previous film, All The Queen's Men).
Stefan Ruzowitzky: Forging an Oscar Winner with The Counterfeiters
By Terry Keefe
This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.
“I never believed that I would make a ‘concentration camp film,’” says filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky on the topic of his concentration camp-set feature The Counterfeiters. “And I still believe that’s true. This is much more of an adventure film that is set in a concentration camp.” Based on the book “The Devil’s Workshop” by Holocaust survivor Adolf Burger, The Counterfeiters tells the real-life story of “Operation Bernhard,” in which a group of Jewish prisoners, who were also artisans of many stripes, were given the task of creating forged British pounds and American dollars, with which the Nazis intended to further fund their war effort and also destroy the Allied economies with a flood of cheap currency. They are presided over in the film by one Salomon Sorowitsch (a great poker-faced Karl Markovics), who prior to his capture was a criminal known as the King of the Counterfeiters. The counterfeiters are treated extremely well, but it slowly becomes apparent that by doing the work which keeps them alive, they are also helping the Nazis win the war. Prodded by fellow prisoner Adolf Burger (August Diehl) who continually sabotages the gelatin used to make the currency, Sorowitsch confronts the ultimate moral dilemma of whether or not to keep himself alive at the expense of the greater good. One of the things that appealed most to filmmaker Ruzowitzky is that The Counterfeiters is indeed on some level a “concentration camp film” but it is also an entertaining story with lots of suspense. “The last thing I wanted to do was a make a history lesson. I think every good movie should raise universal questions. But because this premise is so interesting, I had the opportunity to make a suspenseful movie which would also make people interested in the larger issues surrounding the story.” When this writer remarked that making a commercial film set in a certain time period is one of the best ways to educate a mass audience about that time period, Ruzowitzky remarks, “I think that this [technique] is something that American audiences like. But we were criticized a bit, in Germany for instance, for making the film so accessible.” American audiences will have a chance to see the film this month, but The Counterfeiters is off to a good start in this country, as it just won the Best Foreign Film Oscar a few weeks ago.
The real Adolf Burger is now in his 90s, but he still travels the world with the mission of telling the story of Operation Bernhard. He also acted as an advisor on the film for Ruzowitzky, who did his best to adhere to the facts of the story. “Mr. Burger always says that The Counterfeiters isn’t a documentary, but that it’s truthful overall. We stuck to the primary chain of events, but also created some composite characters. Often I was able to be very close to the historical truth though. Some of the bizarre details of the film, like the ping-pong table given to the counterfeiters, and the cabaret shows they put on for the guards, you can’t make that stuff up.”
When we spoke to Ruzowitsky in mid-February, he was hopeful about winning the Oscar, although it hadn’t happened quite yet. The filmmaker was nonetheless open to the idea of working in the American studio system. In response to the “So, what’s next?” question that is an inevitable part of being a successful director, he replied, “I’m reading a lot of scripts. And trying to make use of my 15 minutes. It’s not about moving here and becoming a star, but to have the options of working internationally would be wonderful.”
The Counterfeiters is currently in theatrical release via Sony Pictures Classics.
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