Fateless

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Fateless

R

2006

2h 16m

History

Drama

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Popcornmeter

95%

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64 Reviews

83%

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10,000+ Ratings

In 1944, 14-year-old Hungarian Jew Gyorgy Koves (Marcell Nagy) quits school to look after his family when his father (János Bán) is deported by the Nazis to a labor camp. Shortly afterward, Gyorgy is seized during a police raid and sent to Auschwitz. Lying about his age to prevent himself from being gassed with the other children, Gyorgy learns from veteran prisoner Bandi Citrom (Áron Dimény) how to survive as he is sent from one concentration camp to another.

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Critics Consensus

Beautifully photographed and majestically scored, Fateless is a haunting account of one boy's experiences during the Holocaust and his journey to pick up the pieces in the war's aftermath.

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Fateless looks man's inhumanity to man square in the eye and pronounces it standard operating procedure, and that may be the greater horror.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jun 2, 2006

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Is the survivor entitled to ordinary human happiness -- or is this human emotion an act of disloyalty and diminution? These questions are a vital part of this outstanding film's dark and sombre power.

Rated: 4/5

May 6, 2006

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Robert Hanks

Independent (UK)

Perhaps the fault lies more with Ennio Morricone's lavish, emotionally bullying music, which cancels out all the reticence and nuance of the script.

Rated: 3/5

May 6, 2006

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Tom Cassidy

Common Sense Media

The horror of the Holocaust is depicted not through explicit violence, but through stellar performances and an artful approach from director Lajos Koltai in this semi-autobiographical Hungarian drama.

May 7, 2025

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Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

This is really the first holocaust film that doesn't just say it was an atrocity; it gives a new psychological perspective that shows a sense of hope and possibly even joy hidden in the horrors.

Nov 7, 2019

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Eve Tushnet

Patheos

It conveys a feeling of exhaustion. Mist drifts through the camp, lending a beauty which does not point to any meaning or goodness, a kind of drained beauty.

Feb 8, 2019

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Stephen C

Based on a true story in 2 hours and 16 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated R for Nudity, Disturbing Holocaust Images and Brief Strong Language!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The USA grossed over $195,900.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy 20th anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/22/25

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Audience Member

Easily the best film about victims of the Holocaust. Makes Schindlers List look like a soap opera.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Audience Member

While I definitely think the subject matter is important and it's not a badly made film, it just wasn't for me. Or maybe it was just my mood the day I tried to watch it- but either way, I couldn't put myself through it. The acting is good, and it's not that it isn't interesting- I just couldn't put myself through it.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Audience Member

An interesting movie about the personal experience of a Hungarian Jew during the Holocaust. Still, you cannot really empathize with the weird apathetic personality of the main character until the last reflections of the movie.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Audience Member

Rising Above Personal Horror, learning the Meaning of Life in a Concentration Camp--Hauntingly beautiful!!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

This is a great movie based on the autobiographical novel by Nobel Prize winning novelist Imre Kertész. It tells the story of a teenage Hungarian Jewish boy sent to the Nazi death camps near thye end of the war. The horrors of the camps, and of the Nazi's antisemitism in general, are well represented but not the major concern of the film. It is much more about survival -- bodily and spiritually -- amid the banality of evil in the camps. The viewer hopefully will agree with the boy in the end that life is worth living and that more important than the horrors is the reality that some happiness could be found even in the midst of the evil of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

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Lajos Koltai

Director

Marcell Nagy

György Köves

Áron Dimény

Bandi Citrom

András M. Kecskés

Finn

József Gyabronka

Unlucky man

Endre Harkányi

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Synopsis

In 1944, 14-year-old Hungarian Jew Gyorgy Koves (Marcell Nagy) quits school to look after his family when his father (János Bán) is deported by the Nazis to a labor camp. Shortly afterward, Gyorgy is seized during a police raid and sent to Auschwitz. Lying about his age to prevent himself from being gassed with the other children, Gyorgy learns from veteran prisoner Bandi Citrom (Áron Dimény) how to survive as he is sent from one concentration camp to another.

Director: Lajos Koltai
Producer: Andras Hamori, Péter Barbalics, Ildiko Kennedy, Jonathan Olsberg
Screenwriter: Imre Kertész
Distributor: ThinkFilm
Production Co: Euroarts, Magic Média, Renegade
Rating: R (Nudity|Disturbing Holocaust Images|Brief Strong Language)
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 6, 2006, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 2, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $195.9K
Runtime: 2h 16m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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