Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Hungarian Nobel laureate Imre Kertész, this exquisitely shot, predominantly black-and-white film follows a Jewish teenager incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp. Most films have overtly busy story lines and a regrettable lack of nuance. Fateless is all subtlety –-too much at times. Fourteen year old Gyurka (Marcell Nagy) endures the horrors of the extermination camp with an inexplicable equanimity, as if simply accepting the randomness of his situation. An older inmate, with an indomitable will to survive, takes Gyurka under his wing. The boy's passivity works against the film, keeping the viewer at an unfortunate emotional distance, although the astounding physical toll he endures suggests his intense suffering. Mesmerizing black-and-white images both capture and belie the horror of the story's setting, giving the film an incongruous beauty that borders on the surreal. Faces are like etched drawings, hushed portraits of human suffering. In Hungarian and German, with English subtitles, Fateless marks the feature directorial debut of award-winning cinematographer Lajos Koltai, who entrusted the actual cinematography to the extraordinary Gyula Pados (Kontroll).

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