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Fateless

Play trailer Poster for Fateless R Released Jan 6, 2006 2h 16m History Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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95% Tomatometer 64 Reviews 83% Popcornmeter 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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Fateless

Fateless

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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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Critics Reviews

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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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Audience Member the film name is fateless, but the film has a fate Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Fateless

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Cast & Crew

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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

Old Kollmann

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Fateless

Fateless (2005) Fateless (2005) Fateless (2005) View more photos

Movie Info

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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