REVIEW. Karl Markovics tour-de-force as Salomon Sorowitsch distinguishes this film of the Jewish counterfeit racket set up by the Nazis, to prop up the regime in the last days of World War II.

An excellently conceived & executed moral dilemma, sharp & gut-piercing. ***** (5 stars).

WHERE. DVD.

Markovics, who plays the pragmatic Jewish counterfeiter Sorowitsch is perfectly cast in this role. Perhaps best known as the popular Stockinger in Inspector (Kommissar) Rex, the absolute ownership of the role, means Markovics IS Sorowitsch.

Set initially in Weimar Berlin (after a flashback) as Sorowitsch ignores warning. Soon he is caught as a counterfeiter & then ends up in a Concentration Camp.

After several years, he is transferred by his original captor to a facility where he is tasked to lead a team in printing British Pounds. Pounds that will act as Foreign Exchange to fund the German war effort in the dying days of the War in Europe.

Then to be produced is the difficult US dollar. In between there are numerous human foibles & heroics, as the war continues until the end of the conflict.

This film made me consider what price is ideology? What price is one more day of life? And whether it is better or not to be a wholly practical man? And how do differences in a group of reasonable men lead to what actually happens as history?

For me, this film reminded me of Ben Franklin encapturing of Enlightenment ideas. And the black days that come with central-enforced enactment in flawed ideology.

On these questions it is hard to reach a conclusion, yet in the dark days of World War II, we can ask, without impinging the moral certitudes of the present.

So watch this movie. Ask the questions. And watch Markovics, who all-but won the film it’s 2008 Best Foreign Film Oscar.

You don’t have to tell others your answers. Or your questions. But’s important to ask.