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

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

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

"Fateless" is an essential film in the canon of holocaust film because it vividly tracks the specific brand of hatred that torture and genocidal murder inures.

| Original Score: A | Apr 20, 2009

Una película de sobrecogedora belleza que se las arregla para arrojar nueva luz sobre un tema trillado y recurrente.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 25, 2007

Masterfully directed, acted and shot, this is world cinema at its absolute finest.

| Mar 1, 2007

Haunting, affecting and beautiful in its own way, although slow-moving and overlong.

| Original Score: B | Jan 19, 2007

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 13, 2007

In a long list of Holocaust films, this sublime one is well-worth seeking out.

| Original Score: A | Dec 9, 2006

Fateless looks man's inhumanity to man square in the eye and pronounces it standard operating procedure, and that may be the greater horror.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 2, 2006

Plays out as a constant tug-of-war between what makes it trite and what makes it unique, although what makes it unique has the better chance of sticking with you.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 27, 2006

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 6, 2006

Perhaps the fault lies more with Ennio Morricone's lavish, emotionally bullying music, which cancels out all the reticence and nuance of the script.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2006

We're meant to see the camps with a naive adolescent eye, but director Koltai misjudges his material, and his fastidious paletting and highly orchestrated set-pieces are curiously low-impact; beautiful where they should be beastly.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 5, 2006

Fiercely unsentimental and surprisingly beautiful, Hungarian drama Fateless does the seemingly impossible: it succeeds in portraying the subject of the Holocaust in a new and devastating light.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2006

Relatively few films touching on the Holocaust are worthy of their subject; this one is.

| May 4, 2006

When Gyorgy speaks, like a junkie remembering his addiction, of 'the happiness of the camps,' the moment is far scarier than the images of pale corpses and hangman's nooses.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2006

A reflection of how its main character comes to experience reality, as one small moment between what came before and whatever horror or happiness is yet to come.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 20, 2006

Lajos Koltai's.. textured re-creation of enduring the unimaginable with quiet delicacy is the most hauntingly beautiful film about the Holocaust ever made.

| Original Score: A | Apr 13, 2006

This is haunting because it's a look inside the concentration camps through the eyes of a child.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 2, 2006