Fateless is
a deeply moving tale of a Hungarian Jewish boy and his quest for the meaning
of his past. It screened in Official Selection at Berlin, 2005.
Based on the 2002 Nobel prize-winning novel by Imre Kertesz, Fateless
chronicles the attempts of 14-year-old Gyuri Koves to reconcile the
unimaginable horror of having been incarcerated in German concentration
camps. On his return to Budapest Gyuri finds those around him treat him with
indifference. His friends and neighbours encourage him to put the past
behind him, while an intellectual sympathetic to the personal and political
terror of his past repeatedly refers to the camps as "the lowest circle of
Hell". Gyuri finds neither comfort nor meaning in these cliches.
Increasingly troubled by the meaninglessness of his experiences, he gives
human motives to the inhumanity of his captors, which helps maintain his
tenuous hold on the world. Lacking emotional and spiritual ties to his
Jewish heritage and feeling rejected by his country, he concludes that
neither his Jewishness nor Hungarianess is really at the heart of fate.
Fateless is the biggest independent production ever
made in Hungary and the directorial debut of the famous cinema photographer,
Lajos Koltai who received an Oscar Nomination for Maléna.
Fateless was shot in Hungary and Germany with an international cast.
The film has a 10 Mio. EUR budget and is a European Co production with the
Hungarian Producers Magic Media (and backup from the Hungarian Motion
Picture Foundation), the German EuroArts Medien AG and the UK's Renegade
Films Ltd. The film is produced in Germany with support from
MFG,
MDM and
MDR. Shooting was finished on the 26th of June in Arnstadt after a
one week shooting in Germany.
Pina
Womb
The Countess
Women Without Men
Nothing but Ghosts
Trip to Asia
La Fine del Mare
Paradise Now
Fateless
Jena Paradies
Heimkehr
Silent Waters
Weg!