Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Some films transcend the screen and become so real that for much of the screening you feel you are actually there.  Fateless is one of these films, at least from the moment that the 14 year old boy who is the lead character arrives at the Auchwitz concentration camp.  The scenes in the camp are stunningly beautiful thanks to the wonderfully artistic photography of Gyula Pados.  It reflects the mental processes of the boy as he gets weaker and hallucinates more in this unreal world he has to accept and live in.  The portrayal of the camps, while sparing us much of the horror and violence of some films, seems to be one of the most realistic we have seen – reminiscent of the bleakness of “The Pianist”.  The film is a fascinating look at the process of change in a human being who deliberately takes a passive and distant approach to his fate – he is more interested at keeping his word to his father than any speculation on his future.  Marcell Nagy carries the film on his shoulders and the story based on Nobel winner Imre Kertész’s autobiography is a testament to the author’s ability to go deep and give us an authentic human reaction and not something neatly packaged for the cinema.  Full marks to new director Lajos Koltai and his Hungarian team.  This is a first class film.

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