The Forger [Der Passfälscher] ***½ (2022, Louis Hofmann, Jonathan Berlin, Luna Wedler) – Classic Movie Review 12,530

Objects used during Cioma Schönhaus’s escape: the road map and document case, and their chest pouch are now in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland.

Louis Hofmann stars as Cioma Schönhaus, a 21-year-old German graphic artist who lives illegally as a Jew in hiding in Berlin during World War Two, in the tense and compelling 2022 real-life wartime thriller The Forger [Der Passfälscher]. 

Louis Hofmann stars as Cioma Schönhaus, a 21-year-old German Jewish man, graphic artist and writer who lives illegally as a Jew in hiding in Berlin during World War Two, in the tense and compelling 2022 real-life wartime thriller The Forger [Der Passfälscher].

Cioma behaves recklessly, dangerously even, going by bus when he should walk, appearing riskily and openly in public places when he should be hiding, and tries to evade the ever threatening and snooping Gestapo while he saves lives by forging hundreds of passports and identity documents to help other Jews survive.

The focus is all on Cioma, but Cioma is not alone. He works closely with members of the Confessing Church, including Franz Kaufmann (Marc Limpach) and Helene Jacobs (Marie Jung). And Louis Hofmann isn’t alone either. Along with these other actors, Jonathan Berlin plays Cioma’s friend Det Kassriel, Luna Wedler is his girlfriend, Nina Gummich plays his landlady Frau Peters, and André Jung is the sinister Herr Dietrich.

Hofmann gives a quietly intense, impressive performance, with his sudden flashes of smiles hiding his character’s pain and hurt, and yes terror, as the story is all seen through his eyes and the camera is always on him. The Nazi atrocities and reign of terror are well, and convincingly covered, but this time we are spared the horrific details.

A much darker film from this material would clearly be possible, but The Forger seeks to be entertaining with some lighter-hearted moments, incidents and scenes, as well as being informative, revealing and quite moving too. It follows the idea that if you want to tell a good story, there is no point in alienating the listener. And this is a good story, well told. The period atmosphere is well done, quite economically mostly on carefully chosen interiors, and the photography is good too. Nothing about this film appears to strains too hard for its effects, but it it still very effective.

For this, we have to thank writer/ director Maggie Peren.

[Spoiler alert] Cioma Schönhaus, born on 28 September 1922 in Berlin, finally escaped from Berlin to Switzerland by bicycle in 1943, where he remained till he died on 22 September 2015. He used a military identity card that he had forged himself for the escape. This was clever, brilliant even, but also he had luck on his side too. Tragically, though, and inevitably, we learn at the end of the film that many of his friends and family were not as lucky.

His memoir Der Passfälscher was published in Germany in 2004 and was published by Granta Books in 2007 as The Forger, translated from the German. The film is dedicated to his life.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,530

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German actor Louis Hofmann (born 3 June 1997).