28 September 2007
Director: Lajos Koltai
Cast: Marcell Nagy, Áron Dimény, Béla Dóra, Péter Vida, Zsolt Dér, Daniel Craig
Rating: 12a
Length: 134 minutes
Country: Hungary, Germany, UK



Fiercely unsentimental and surprisingly beautiful, Hungarian drama Fateless does the seemingly impossible: it succeeds in portraying the subject of the Holocaust in a new and devastating light. Based on a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész, it's the story of 14-year-old Hungarian Jew György Köves, whose unremarkable arrest on a bus in Budapest leads to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and near death in a smaller German labour camp. It's a handsome and large-scale production but don't go expecting another Schindler's List. Lajos Koltai's film is far more ambiguous, disturbing and, ultimately, uplifting.

See also

The Holocaust Chronicles: The section on the Hungarian Jews gives all the harrowing background you could ask for. Note, make sure you use the "Next Page" link at the top of the page to get the full story.