Josef Aichholzer Movies

Writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky explores the moral corrosion of Nazi complicity with this tightly wound adaptation of Adolf Burger's fact-based book The Devil's Workshop. Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) may be a talented artist at heart, but his desire for wealth has driven him to use his creativity for more nefarious means. Arrested by the police inspector Herzog (Devid Striesow) at the onset of World War II, Sorowitsch is sent to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp. It's not long before Salomon's thinly veiled opportunism earns him a relatively comfortable position as the camp's resident sketch artist, and five years later he is mysteriously swept away to Sachsenhausen. Upon arriving at the camp, Sorowitsch discovers that Herzog, now a commandant, is attempting to destabilize the economies of the Allies while simultaneously funding the Nazi war machine by assembling a special team of counterfeit artists to create millions in fraudulent pounds and dollars. As the operation gets under way, Sorowitsch finds the efforts of the team continually undermined by unyieldingly idealistic collotype specialist Adolf Burger (August Diehl). In the months that follow, the team wrestles with their consciences as Axis forces are gradually overwhelmed by Allied might. The Counterfeiters won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A sullen Viennese boy longing for the affection of his neglectful mother determines to find out just why his neighbors scornfully refer to him as a "whore's son" in director Michael Sturminger's Oedipal-oriented drama. When Ozren was just a child, his mother Silvija (Chulpan Khamatova) always told him that she supported the family by working nights as a waitress. As the years went by and the comments made by his neighbors led Ozren to question his mother's true profession, his needs for parental companionship continued to go unfulfilled despite the close relationships shared with his religious Aunt Ljiljana and his worldly Uncle Ante. Now, with only one piece of the puzzle missing in his eye-opening education, Ozren prepares to remove the blinders and find out just where his mother has been going when glides out the door each evening dressed in lavish furs and revealing miniskirts. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, was an eccentric woman (she refused to be photographed after the age of 30) with a philosophical bent and a fondness for world travel; this documentary offers a glimpse into Elizabeth's thoughts and statements as she traveled through Egypt during two separate visits to that nation, first in 1885 and later in 1891. Director Ruth Beckermann combines direct quotes from Elizabeth with speculation on her ideas and motivations as her camera follows the same paths Elizabeth traveled over a century before. Ein Fluchtiger Zug Nach Dem Orient was screened in competition at the 2000 Karlovy Vary Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This somewhat curious documentary examines life in a contemporary Jewish community in Austria near where the Theresienstadt concentration camp was located. The documentary chiefly follows the village's survivors of the Holocaust as they go about their daily lives. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide