- Film Review
- Reviewed By Adam Smith
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4 out of 5
This astonishing Second World War drama tells the true story of Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a Jewish counterfeiter who is ensnared in a Nazi plot while incarcerated in a concentration camp. Arrested in pre-war Berlin, Sally survives long enough to be sent to Sachsenhausen, centre of a scheme to produce enough forged Allied currency to destabilise the US and UK economies. In return for their expertise, the forgers are granted privileges such as clean beds, cigarettes and food, but one of their number, Adolf Burger (on whose memoir this is based), is opposed to co-operating with the Nazis and attempts to sabotage the project. Writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky doesn't foreground the Nazi brutality, letting it insinuate itself in the sounds of murderous violence that filter into the forgers' barracks from the camp, while the compelling screenplay wrestles with the moral agonies surrounding collaboration.
Plot Summary
Oscar-winning Second World War drama based on a true story, starring Karl Markovics. Berlin, 1936: Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch has a talent for forgery that finances his taste for the finer things in life. But that all comes to an end when he's arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where he must use his artistic gifts in order to stay alive.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch
- Karl Markovics
- Adolf Burger
- August Diehl
- Sturmbannführer Friedrich Herzog
- Devid Striesow
- Hauptscharführer Holst
- Martin Brambach
- Dr Klinger
- August Zirner
- Atze
- Veit Stübner
- Kolya
- Sebastian Urzendowsky
- Zilinsky
- Andreas Schmidt
- Dr Viktor Hahn
- Tilo Prückner
- Loszek
- Lenn Kudrjawizki
Crew
- Director
- Stefan Ruzowitzky
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