Holocaust drama debates survival vs. evil

Is survival an adequate reason for complicity with evil?

As with the Nuremberg trials, the taut drama "The Counterfeiters" debates the question in a way that puts the audience directly into the line of fire. Based on a true story, it concerns a group of expert craftsmen who are forced to produce counterfeit money to support the Nazi war effort during World War II.

It is directed and written by Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky, who makes no secret that his grandparents were Nazi sympathizers. It presents a kind of moral dilemma that smacks of the German production "The Boat" (1981) in dealing with the inner workings of a war that took no moral prisoners.

Its central character is wonderfully played by a hatchet-faced actor named Karl Markovics - the kind of leading man who would never get a job in Hollywood. He's tough, he's wizened and he's determined to survive - no matter what.

We first meet him in Monte Carlo, where, clad in a cheap suit, he throws about thousands of dollars in counterfeit money on the gambling tables. While he's a Russian Jew, he is uncommitted to the war. As "the king of the counterfeiters" he is a criminal scoundrel for all occasions.

When he's captured and sent to a German concentration camp, he is spared because of his expertise.

What follows is a group of character sketches involving many of his fellow prisoners. They are coddled with soft beds and food while, on the other side of a thin wall, the other prisoners are tortured and killed. Some think the craftsmen should sabotage the plates that produce the money that will allow the Nazis to embezzle millions of dollars from the British and the Americans.

The screenplay sinks to melodramatics upon occasion, especially with its showily heroic finale, but for the most part, it is believably honest in its human relations. There is the usual German officer who claims he is not a Nazi but is just as devoted as the film's central character to surviving. If he doesn't produce the phony money, he will be exterminated himself.

Salomon, the central character, is a gifted artist, but he'd rather make money for money than for art. His fellow prisoners feel he is too devoted to helping the Germans.

There are several indications that fictional subplots have been added, but this drama effectively gets at the very dilemma of human existence that was at issue. The question of survival vs. martyrdom leaves the audience to squirm in their theater seats and make up their own minds.

As such, this is an important film drama, expertly acted by the deadpan Markovics.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com