AFFFF26: The Money Maker

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L'Affaire Bojarski

Jan Bojarski (Reda Kateb, The Extraordinary, AF FFF20), a young Polish engineer, takes refuge in France during WWII. Gifted and determined to survive, he puts his talents to use forging false identity papers during the German occupation, operating in the shadows where ingenuity becomes a matter of life and death.

When the war ends, freedom does not bring stability. Trapped in poorly paid jobs and denied official civil status, Jan is unable to register the patents for his many inventions. His brilliance remains invisible until a gangster recognises his exceptional skills and offers him a dangerous opportunity: to produce counterfeit banknotes.

This marks the beginning of a secret double life. For more than fifteen years, unbeknownst to his family, Bojarski runs a clandestine counterfeiting operation from a shed at the back of his garden, creating forgeries so precise they rival the originals issued by the bank itself. Quiet, methodical, and obsessive, he becomes a ghost hidden in plain sight.

Inevitably, perfection attracts attention. Jan finds himself on the radar of Inspector Mattei (Bastien Bouillon, Monsieur Aznavour, AF FFF25), one of France’s most determined detectives.

Based on the true story of Jan Bojarski, known as the “Cézanne of counterfeit money,” the film is directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, (Godmother, AF FFF21, Sitting Duck, AF FFF24) who stages this pursuit as a contemporary Western duel. While rooted in real events, the film embraces the codes of the action thriller to transform a hidden life into a gripping confrontation.