Stefan Ruzowitzky won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for his movie The Counterfeiters, a WWII narrative based on true events around an enormous Nazi counterfeiting scheme. It’s been quite common to see movies based on the holocaust taking home Oscars (Nazis are a modern archetype making for great good versus evil showdowns). But what you don’t often see is an Austrian filmmaker making a movie for an apparently large audience that still refuses to believe Nazis were the BAD GUYS.

I revived an interview I did in Telluride with Ruzowitzky an hour before he premiered The Counterfeiters. He talks about why he made the movie and his desire to beat up old people after the jump…

Stefan Ruzowitzky: My name is Stefan Ruzowitzky. And the movie is called The Counterfeiters. I’m from Austria.

Paul Moore: [The Counterfeiters] is about the largest counterfeiting scheme ever. It was perpetrated by the Nazis during Word War II, and it’s counterfeiting U.S. money that was… they found it in the bottom of a lake, right?

Stefan: Yes. What they did, they counterfeited British pounds and U.S. dollars. U.S. dollars not so much, because the concentration camp inmates who they forced to do it, they kind of sabotaged it, and so the Nazis didn’t succeed in producing lots of U.S. dollars. Just very few, I think, $70,000. But, millions and millions of British pounds.

And the in the very last of days of the Second World War, they drowned everything that was left in a lake in Austria. And in Austria, it’s a myth, you know, the Nazi treasure in Lake Toplitz. And people always thought there were tons of gold or whatever down there. But as a matter of fact, it’s just the leftovers of these counterfeited British pound notes.

Paul: I’m curious as to how you got started making this film.

Stefan: The one story is that there was quite an odd coincidence that two producers, independently from on another, approached me with the same story within two weeks. And so I felt, well, this has to be destiny or whatever. And then, I introduced them to one another and this is how this co-production between Austria and Germany came about.

The other answer to the question, is that being an Austrian and having grandparents who were some more, some less dedicated sympathizers of the Nazis, and having Austrian politicians who still are saying very wrong things about the Nazis and getting away with it. Somehow you feel the urge to make a statement once in your life, as a filmmaker, as somebody who has the chance to be heard, in a way. And this, I felt, was a good story for me to make this statement.

Paul: And what is the statement that you’re after in this story? I’m curious.

Stefan: Many things. One of the most important things, I can remember my grandaunt, who was quite a Nazi as well, she once told me, while I was still in school and there was a political scandal in Austria, she said, “Well, there is no morals in politics since 1945.”

Paul: [laughs]

Stefan: And she was a dear old lady. And this is a common notion, still in Austria and Germany, that people say, “Yes, well the Holocaust was not OK, but this was like an accident. But, overall, the Nazis were not that bad. They did these nice highways, and there was no unemployment.” And that kind of stuff.

And if you look at it and do some research, you find out they were crooks! They did break every law there is, including counterfeiting money, and stealing, and raping, and whatsoever. And it’s really bizarre that back home they stand for law and order.

Paul: So, is your aunt still around to watch this movie?

Stefan: No.

Paul: Ah.

Stefan: And it’s for them. [Now] is the point that these people that lived back then, they aren’t around any more. I tried to make an accessible movie for a generation that hasn’t been personally involved. So actually, it was not my intention to punch them in the face. It would have made sense for my aunt and some of my grandparents.

I can remember when we tried to discuss this era with my grandma, she would just leave the room and say, “Well, you don’t have any idea what it was like back then.” And you can’t follow her and take her [mimics shaking a little person] and say, “Now, Granny, you tell me what you did and why you did it!”

And I think this is not only my grandma, but most people’s grandparents reacted like that.

[thunder booms]
Paul: Yeah. I think the thunder and lightening is a sign that you are going to punch somebody in the face this week. [laughs]

Stefan: [laughs] There’s some movie starting in an hour, so let’s see whether it refers to mine.