Movie review: The Counterfeiters

Every time I watch 'The Counterfeiters' something happens.
I am transported to a different era, a different place, an entire different continuum it seems. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Operation Bernhard in place. The time period, 1930s.
It follows the lives of some Jews, who were interned by the Nazi, to carry out the forgery of the pound and the dollar, in an effort to destabilise the British and American economy by flooding them with the counterfeited notes. Their conditions when compared to those of the other prisoners could be termed luxury. Since they operate in a scam of epic proportions for the benefit of the SS, they are cut some slack.
Meet the people. Sally Sorowitsch as the ringmaster who was a criminal counterfeiter before being sent to the camp. Then there is Burger, who is a moralist, vehemently Anti-Nazi and refuses to aid in anything that would favour the German side in war. Dr. Klinger, the kind doctor who shouts fake abuses at windows so that the officers don't suspect him to be too lenient. Kolya who wanted to be an artist, but was killed as he contracted tuberculosis. And many others.
There are many masterpieces of moments captures by the director Stefan Ruzkowitzky.
When Sally and Burger are playing table tennis in their barricaded lodgings, and hear shots fired at someone just outside the fence. And an officer gets angry as he fears his counterfeiters could have been hurt.
The five men are standing in front of Herzog waiting to be shot, as they could not produce the pound and are being suspected of intentionally sabotaging the operation. This is true, as Burger-their collotype is destroying the samples to stall the forgery. But when Zilinski is about to reveal the culprit to Herzog, Sally rushes in and lays down the notes on the table. The painful heathen silence subsides.
When Burger receives a letter saying his wife was killed in Auschwitz, and Sally tries to comfort him. He doesn't want to live anymore, and expresses his wrath on their beds which seem a futile luxury to him. And Sally tells him that each day of life is worth it.
In the end when the camp is liberated, the counterfeiters meet the other prisoners who are starving, ragged and unbelieving of these seemingly well-kept Jews at first. Dr. Klinger says, "This is Burger. He's a hero!" A beautiful piece of music plays on the record, as the other prisoners spend few moments of little happiness as mere as the touch of a bedsheet. One of them says to Burger, who eyes are trembling with tears he tries to hold in, "You know, we used to hear the wonderful music sometimes."
And I cry.
Favourite actor: August Diehl (whom you'll recognise from Inglorious Basterds) in the role of Adolf Burger. Mesmerising, this man!!! I don't need to acquaint you with the horrors of the Nazi holocaust, but if you loved Schindler's list, you will love this too. And although it is entirely in German, the experience is none the less for it.