15 January 2008

It's hard to ignore a film that attracts the sort of super-enthusiastic reviews that Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters [Die Fälscher] has been attracting like an atomic powered magnet. Providing confirmation that a new generation of filmmakers are set to put German cinema back on the international map, The Counterfeiters tells the story of the biggest counterfeit money scam of all time, but one that took place under circumstances that were both tragic and spectacular.

The film tells the story of counterfeiter, bohemian and playboy, Salomon Sorowitsch, whose philandering ways were brought to an abrupt end in Berlin, 1936, when he is caught red-handed working on his most ambitious forgery yet – the Dollar. Then in the dying days of World War II, the Nazis hatch an audacious plan to save their failing war effort and sink the economies of their enemies.

If the story has a familiar ring, at least for older viewers, then it could be that the true story that inspired the film also gave birth to a brilliant TV comedy-drama of yesteryear titled Private Schultz, a series that is just crying out to be pulled from the archives and released on DVD. Just a thought.

Unlike its UK TV counterpart, The Counterfeiters is to get a DVD release in March, courtesy of Metrodome on a disc that has its share of UK exclusive extra features:

• Making of the Counterfeiters featurette;
• Interview with Adolf Burger, upon whose memoirs the film is based;
• Interview with director Stefan Ruzowitzky;
• Interview with lead actor Karl Markovics;
• Adolf Burger's artefacts;
• Deleted scenes;
• Theatrical trailer.

The Counterfeiters will be released by Metrodome on 17th March 2008 by Metrodome at the RRP of £19.99.