Sorstalanság / Fateless

Lajos Koltai: Sorstalanság / Fateless (HU/GB/DE 2005) starring Marcell Nagy (Gyuri Köves).

Roman eines Schicksallosen / Ikuisesti merkitty / Fateless – ikuisesti merkitty.
    HU/GB/DE 2005. PC: EuroArts / Magic Media / Renegade Films.
    D: Lajos Koltai. SC: Imre Kertész based on his novel. DP: Gyula Pados. M: Ennio Morricone. Song: "In einer mondhellen Nacht". Starring Marcell Nagy (Gyuri Köves).
    136 min.
    Digital, consciously dirty, quasi-monochrome look.
    With German subtitles.
    In the presence of Lajos Koltai, Imre Kertész, Marcell Nagy, Gyula Pados and members of the team.
    Viewed at Berlinale-Palast, Berlin Film Festival (Competition) 15 Feb 2005.

An ambitious film based on the novel by Imre Kertész the Nobel Prize winner. The first two hours are a solid account of Holocaust in Hungary and in three concentration camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Zeitz). The final half hour is the most exceptional: the story of the returned survivor. We are made to understand that the same thing could happen all over again. Although the screening went on well past midnight the compelling film kept me totally focused. Marcell Nagy is exceptional, even more moving than Adrian Brody in The Pianist. One of the great Holocaust films. ***½