The Counterfeiters

Once again I was drawn into the world of movies and this time it was the Counterfeiters, an Austrian movie which won the Oscars in the foreign film category. Watching this movie I also realized why an Indian movie never won an Oscar in this category. The three shortcomings of Indian cinema is listed below.

Indian formula of hero centered movies

Lack of originality in script

Too much of embellishments like songs and overacting.

I befriended ‘The Counterfeiters’ some three months back when I saw the Podcast, Movie Minutes from New York Times where A.O Scott reviewed the movie in his own impeccable style. The discovery of the DVD at the B’lore ‘cinema paradiso’ made me feel quite cinematic and the quality of the print was excellent. This is not an English movie but it has got three languages – German, Austrian and Russian. Subtitles help us a lot. The movie is based on a true story and it is based on the Nazis project called Project Bernhard," the aims of which include destabilizing the economies of Britain and the USA by producing and circulating vast quantities of forged banknotes. This is also the story of Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch who is described as the King of Counterfeiters. He is an artist and through his art he saves himself and the life of others around him. Outstanding acting from Karl Markovics is one of the highest points of the film.
The tags that I found attached to the film were –
A genius con artist put to work by the Nazis. A survivor's tale you've never seen before.
It takes a clever man to make money; it takes a genius to stay alive