AMD 1

For this weeks AMD I watched the German film "The Counterfeiters" (Die Fälscher) by director Stefan Ruzowitzky. It revolves around the largest counterfeiting scheme in history - a plan by the Nazis to disrupt the British economy by devaluing the British pound due to an influx of forged notes they would sneak into the country. Such a ridiculous plan seems like a great idea for a movie, and indeed it does work well. The film focuses on one man, a Russian Jew, and his experiences involved with the plan while imprisoned in a concentration camp. He had formerly been involved in forgery, and is therefore picked by leadership at the camp to be involved with the production of the forged bank notes. Lots of issues arise from this situation, the workers receive better treatment than the rest of the concentration camp, but they're also directly helping the German war effort. I won't spoil the rest of the movie, but it focuses on the protagonist's life after he is liberated from the concentration camp.

The ridiculous story the film is based on seems ripe for a film adaption, and thankfully Ruzowitzky is able to deliver a well crafted movie. By just focusing on one man in the operation, the story is made more personal and emotionally compelling. Karl Markovics (playing the protagonist Salomon) gives a convincing performance and really carries the movie. The film was honored with the award for "Best Foreign Language Film" in the 2007 Academy Awards. 

I was able to pick out various words and familiar sentences, but of course the language was still a bit fast and included a lot of vocabulary unknown to me. Watching German movies with subtitles are still my favorite way of doing AMDs, because I can not only recognize and piece together words I already know, but I can form new associations as well thanks to the subtitles.