Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Films set during the Holocaust often focus on one portion of a character’s journey during that time. Often we see the events leading up to and including a person’s time in a concentration camp, and each story of this time and experience is different and equally painful to watch, so much so that, as shameful as it seems, most moviegoers stopped going to such films after Schindler’s List and The Pianist. The finest Holocaust film since those two has made its way to the United States, and it presents a side to these events I’d never considered. Fateless faithfully tracks the experiences of a teenage Jewish boy before, during, and after the Nazi occupation of Hungary at the end of World War II.

Based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertesz (who also wrote the screenplay), Fateless honestly deals with a nation whose Jews were not all taken before the war’s end. As a result, those who returned to Hungary from the liberated camps of Germany and Poland were told by fellow Jews to forget the ordeal, leave it behind, put it out of their minds. Veteran cinematographer Lajos Koltai (Malena, Max, Mephisto, Sunshine, Being Julia) makes his directing debut here with a tale of Budapest-native Gyuri Koves (played by newcomer Marcell Nagy), living the life of a normal teen. His imprisonment strikes him as odd, since Gyuri is not particularly devout, but he soon learns this means nothing to the Germans. His is shipped to a series of camps, and put through unimaginable horrors, including being placed on a death cart bound for a mass grave.

But the most powerful scenes in Fateless happen upon Gyuri’s return home, rail thin and still wearing his striped camp clothes. His family is gone and family friends are willing to look after him for a time, but none can identity with what he’s gone through. The look of Fateless is what strikes you immediately. The faded, rusty hues add such an sense of time and timelessness to the events. This is Koltai at his finest. On top of these morbid events is a simple, resonating score from the maestro, Ennio Morricone. And look for a surprising cameo by a certain future James Bond as an American soldier who helps liberate Gyuri’s camp. It’s a nice touch in a film filled with perfect scenes and flawless performances.

Fateless is getting an extremely limited, city-by-city release nationwide, and that’s a shame in many ways (I suppose we should be grateful it’s playing anywhere, but I’m greedy). This is a work of art, covering a topic about which there will never be too many films. Find this movie if it comes anywhere near your town. The film opens today at the Landmark Renaissance Place Cinema in Highland Park.

Capone

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