Review: 'The Forger' More than a Survival Story

In 1940s Berlin, Cioma Schönhaus, a young Jewish man managed to defy the Nazis by hiding in plain sight, doing what he needed to in order to survive. Schönhaus' remarkable story, based on his 2004 memoir, has been freely adapted into a new film, "The Forger," written and directed by Maggie Peren.

The film opens with Cioma's (Louis Hoffmann) entire family already deported to the Majdanek and Sobibor extermination camps. He is to accompany them, but his fate is temporarily altered because of his armament factory job. The brash and clever young man (especially cocky via Peren's pen and Hofmann's performance) uses his tremendous artistic talents to help forge IDs with the few tools at his disposal, and thus saves hundreds of Jewish lives (having an important hand in their being able to escape the country).

Each forgery gets him ration cards which allows him and his roommate, Det (Jonathan Berlin), to live a more-than-decent life right smack in the midst of the German Reich. But he must keep on his toes to stay one step ahead of the Nazis, even perfectly pretending to be Aryan himself.

"The Forger" would not be half as compelling as it is without the incredibly gifted Hofmann as Cioma, using all his boyish charms and assertiveness as the character adopts a bold and daring mindset he must never deviate from. Queer film fans will recognize Hoffmann from Jakob M. Erwa's "Center of My World" (2016), where he played a teen falling for a mysterious male classmate. He also portrayed Rudolph Nureyev's lover in the underrated bio-drama "The White Crow," directed by Ralph Fiennes (2018).

This impressively directed work is handsomely photographed (by Christian Stangassinger), but the screenplay is somewhat convoluted at times; it isn't always clear just how Cioma is surviving, where he is staying or who he's working for. There is also a negligible romantic subplot that feels tacked on, almost as if to prove that Cioma was heterosexual. His scenes with his close friend Det have a definite homoerotic edge to them. Alas, nothing comes of it except some cuddling (to keep warm).

Also, Cioma never dwells on the fact that his family's been sent east, which can be viewed as neglect on Peren's part or a deliberate way of showing how the only way for him to survive is to move forward and never look back. Still, one scene of melancholy might have enhanced the journey and given the character more gravitas.

The film benefits from Hofmann's riveting scenes with the extraordinary Nina Gummich as his landlady, Frau Peters, an antisemite whose cracks begin to (ever so slowly) reveal themselves. Her eyes are either opening to the notion that Germany will lose the war, or to the fact that hatred is toxic – or both. Gummich delivers a raw, angry, and fascinating performance. These moments make "The Forger" much more than just a survival story, elevating the film to a sublime meditation on human nature.

It is also most refreshing to see a movie about a Jew who actually survived the Holocaust and stuck it to the Nazis in the process.

In German with English subtitles.

"The Forger" opens in NY on March 3, 2023, in LA on March 17, 2023, with additional cities to follow.