The Counterfeiters

Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters (German: Die Fälscher) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards in February 2008, the first Austrian production to win the prize. The screenplay is adapted from Adolf Burger's autobiographical book The Devil's Workshop (German: Des Teufels Werkstatt), an account of Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting scheme in history.

Operation Bernhard was a real Nazi programme, set up in mid-1942 at Sachsenhausen concentration camp under SS-Sturmbannführer Bernhard Krüger. Roughly 142 Jewish prisoners with the right skills (printers, engravers, photographers) were forced to counterfeit British pounds, with the aim of destabilising the British economy and financing German espionage. The forged notes rank among the most accomplished counterfeit currency ever produced; after 1945 the Bank of England recalled its £5 notes in stages precisely because Operation Bernhard forgeries were still in circulation.

Karl Markovics, until then mainly a television actor in Austria, leads the cast alongside August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach and Marie Bäumer. His performance earned a European Film Award nomination for Best Actor and changed the direction of his career, bringing him a run of international roles after years at home. The film belongs in any serious discussion of forced collaboration in the camp system, alongside László Nemes' Son of Saul (2015) and the documentary record of the Sonderkommando units.