It's hard to live, and you don't want to die. The history of counterfeiting takes its start simultaneously with the beginning of the use of money in mutual settlements, which replaced the natural exchange of goods. First coins were counterfeited, and much later banknotes and banknotes. The exact date of manufacture of the first counterfeit is unknown, but the oldest surviving counterfeit coins date back to the VI century BC. The idea of using qualitatively fabricated fakes by warring states to undermine the economies of adversaries is not new either. For example, a similar strategy was used during the civil war of the North and South in the United States. Napoleon Bonaparte used the same method in the war with Russia. Similar technologies are used today, as they say, “all means are good in war.”
In the film by Austrian film director and screenwriter Stefan Rutsowitzki, based on the book of memoirs of Adolf Buerger, published in Austria in 1983 under the title “Team of counterfeiters”, and later reprinted in the GDR as “The Devil’s Workshop”. Burger became a prototype printer with a similar name. Not surprisingly, the author showed himself in the most favorable light – a kind of hero who staged a quiet revolt against the Nazis, sabotaging the work of making fake dollars, while jeopardizing the lives of fellow misfortune. His stubbornness can be explained by the fact that he lost his wife in a concentration camp and was a member of the Communist Party of Germany. This role was played by August Diehl. It would seem that his hero is doing everything right, but for some reason it does not inspire trust. It turned out to be crystal clear, but as F. Lessing said: “Less honestly, it would be more honest.” Adolf Burger explicitly addressed his memoirs to posterity to be proud of a heroic ancestor who called for rebellion, but according to the memoirs of another survivor of Operation Bernhard, Abraham Sonnefeld, for all the authenticity of the film, there are several episodes that do not correspond to reality, such as the debate about whether to raise a revolt against the Nazis. There was no such discussion at the time.” Of course, the rats didn't sleep. Burger himself said that it is not necessary to treat his book as a document, it is a work of art.
Another main character Solomon Sorovich also has a prototype - recidivist Solomon Smolyanov, born in Odessa and considered the king of counterfeiters. He is the perfect antipode to Adolf Burger, for whom all life is a struggle. Solomon's main task is to survive and, by and large, there is no difference in principle for him - to die from a Nazi bullet or from an Urban sharpening. The experience of former serving makes itself felt, and the ability to solve problems helps. It would seem that two people of the same nationality, as if heaven and earth. Perhaps the point is that Adolf Burger is a German Jew, and Solomon Sorovitch is a Russian who studied according to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The first of them said:" Life, whatever it may be, is a blessing above which there is none. “One must love life more than the meaning of life,” the second agreed. Adolf lived in accordance with some ideal ideas about the world, and Solomon had his own scale of values, based on purely criminal concepts, and to live by concepts is, in particular, not to surrender and support fellow countrymen, such as the young artist Odessa Koli. Oddly enough, Sturmbanführer Friedrich Herzog (David Striesov), who led the covert operation, also fought for survival in difficult conditions. It is not as cruel as it is usually shown in such films. The Duke is an ordinary cog in the well-established Nazi system, which began to malfunction. Friedrich had a point of intersection even with Adolf Burger, he was also once a member of the Communist Party, and they had known Solomon Sorović for a long time, but not on a friendly line.
The film begins exactly where it ends, meaning that the viewer immediately learns that Solomon is still alive. The war changed little in his life, moreover, he also turned out to be a plus, continuing to tempt fate in the casino - not the worst laundry for dirty money laundering. Hero Solomon recalls the years before and in a VIP concentration camp, but the golden cage remained a cage for the best professionals involved in money: bank employees, printers, artists, engravers, photographers, professional counterfeiters. No wonder they were all Jews. The events shown in the film took place in reality. There is a documentary telling about this operation, which includes the memories of living participants of those events who stood on different sides, but did a common cause, albeit under duress.
Involuntarily comparing this picture with other films telling about the fate of the Jews in the war, well known to any synephile, there is absolutely no desire to put it on the same shelf with them, since it stands out from the general list with its historical authenticity. There is no pedaling of the subject of Jews, the main victims of the war. There are no or minimal cliches and cliches designed to squeeze a tear at all costs, as Spielberg did in Schindler's List. The actions of the characters are amenable to logical analysis, in contrast to Roberto Benigni’s film Life is Beautiful. The main character Solomon is sympathetic, although his appearance does not dispose of it at all. In addition, he did not set anyone up, unlike the hero of the film Roman Polanski “The Pianist”.
Summing up, this picture is not about heroes, but about ordinary people who found themselves by the will of fate in difficult conditions and managed to save themselves. In their place could be representatives of any other nationality, but, firstly, it would not correspond to the historical truth, and secondly, the picture could bypass the attention of the Academy with the next distribution of gilded statuettes.
8 out of 10