Tom Cassidy Common Sense Media May 7, 2025

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.

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Debbie Lynn Elias Behind The Lens Nov 7, 2019

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.

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Eve Tushnet Patheos Feb 8, 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.

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Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Apr 20, 2009 A

"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.

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Enrique Buchichio Uruguay Total Mar 25, 2007 4/5

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

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Lewis Beale Film Journal International Mar 1, 2007

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

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Robert Roten Laramie Movie Scope Jan 19, 2007 B

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

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Michelle Thomas Future Movies UK Jan 13, 2007 9/10

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dec 9, 2006 A

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

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Ty Burr Boston Globe Jun 2, 2006 3.5/4

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

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Jeffrey Chen Window to the Movies May 27, 2006 8/10

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.

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Peter Bradshaw Guardian May 6, 2006 4/5

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.

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Robert Hanks Independent (UK) May 6, 2006 3/5

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

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Rachel Cameron BBC.com May 5, 2006 4/5

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.

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Steve O'Hagan Empire Magazine May 5, 2006 3/5

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.

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Trevor Johnston Time Out May 4, 2006

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

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John Beifuss Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Apr 21, 2006 3.5/4

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.

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Kerry Lengel Arizona Republic Apr 20, 2006 3.5/5

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.

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Sean Axmaker Seattle Post-Intelligencer Apr 13, 2006 A

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

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Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone TheMovieChicks.com Apr 2, 2006 3.5/5

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

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