Many great movies have been made about World War II, but I'm always worried about whether or not filmmakers might lose the humanity of their characters in depicting that tragic time in world history. Luckily, such is not the case with The Counterfeiters, an Austrian tale of the Holocaust that walked away with this year's Oscar for best foreign film -- although against fairly weak competition. In the tradition of such pictures as Life Is Beautiful and Schindler's List, The Counterfeiters is all about survival, or, in this case, the conflict that results when one man's drive to stay alive forces him to potentially sacrifice everything he believes deep down inside.

In 1936 Berlin, Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) reigned supreme as the "King of the Counterfeiters," a man seemingly without morals who  built his life on replicating everything from currency to identification papers. But in the midst of trying to recreate the American dollar, Sally is wrangled in by the long arm of the law and, because of his Jewish heritage, shipped off to an internment camp. Years down the road, however, his skills as an artist get noticed by some high-ranking Nazi officers, who transfer Sally to another camp to participate in  "Operation Bernhard." Alongside several other prisoners, Sally is assigned to help manufacture phony British pound notes as a means of flooding England's economy and helping turn the tide of the war in favor of the Germans. As Sally gladly complies, set on doing whatever he can to stay alive, his actions are put at odds with those of Burger (August Diehl), a fellow inmate who refuses to help the Nazis and attempts to use his position to sabotage Operation Bernhard from the inside out.

"One adapts or dies," says Sally at one point, a theme that recurs often throughout The Counterfeiters. The film's strength, however, lies in showing what lengths one will go to as well as how long a person can play by the rules of another's sick game in order to live. Writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky (Anatomy) presents a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario in which the prisoners taking part in Operation Bernhard find themselves helping the Nazi war effort. Still, if they did not comply, they would be victims of a hateful regime. The Counterfeiters keeps the story down to earth by focusing on how Sally develops as a character. As the film begins, he's as unscrupulous as you can get, ready and willing to play along with the Nazis if it means getting to sleep in a somewhat comfy bed (not to mention remaining breathing for a few more days). But the more Sally bows to the whim of his captors, the more he finds himself coming around to Burger's way of thinking: their shared fate is something that no amount of quick thinking and talent at forgery can evade.

The Counterfeiters never lets the setting grow bigger than the characters, thanks in part to Ruzowitzky's downplayed direction but mostly due to the spot-on performance delivered by Markovics. He does a great job of handling the conflict Sally endures, of making it clear he's only lending his skills to the Nazis in order to survive, even though doing so has blinded him to the darkest horrors of the Holocaust. This path results in a more interesting and well-rounded character, as Sally remains a man whose ethics may be on the shifty side but one who remains fairly sympathetic for the duration of the picture. The same goes for Diehl's turn as Burger, whose aspirations of turning the tables on the Nazis are honorable but end up endangering the lives of his fellow prisoners. The acting of these two men is superb. Their subtle but powerful performances balance out the more hammy, one-note roles delivered by some of the supporting actors.

Although The Counterfeiters is a very good film, it's not a great one. The cinematography feels a little too grainy and washed-out, and there's hardly a moment within the film that doesn't feel predictable to some degree. However, while 2007 saw more ideal foreign pictures to bless with the coveted golden statue (Persepolis springs to mind), The Counterfeiters emerges as a movie of quiet power, proving that filmmakers don't need epics to create a stirring and effective Holocaust tale.

MY RATING: *** (out of ****)

(Released by Sony Pictures Classics and rated "R" for some strong violence, brief sexuality, nudity and language.)

Review also posted at www.passportcinema.com .