The Counterfeiters

Metrodome Stefan Ruzowitzky's taut, engrossing drama is based on the true story of concentration camp Jews – printers, typographers and others – who escaped the gas chambers by counterfeiting for the Nazis. Operation Bernhard presented these select prisoners with a terrible moral dilemma: the more money they forged for their captors' war effort, the longer they survived; while their comrades continued to die. Ruzowitzky's masterstroke is a wholly original anti-hero – the crook amongst the craftsmen, forger Salomon Sorowitsch, who is played with extraordinary subtlety by Karl Markovics.