Lajos Koltai, Fateless

One of the world's great cinematographers, Lajos Koltai has closely collaborated on all of the most recent films of Hungary's internationally known director Istvan Szabo including the Oscar-winning Mephisto, the epic Sunshine with Ralph Fiennes, and the Oscar-nominated Being Julia with Annette Bening. With Fateless, an adaptation of Hungary's Nobel Prize-winning writer Imre Kertesz's debut 1975 novel, Koltai finally makes his directorial debut. Fateless chronicles Kertesz' autobiographical experience as a 14-year-old in 1944 Budapest who was rounded up by the Nazis - even though the war was known to be virtually unwinnable - and sent to Auschwitz. Because Koltai insisted on filming chronologically so when the production was halted for four months until new financing could be found, Fateless got a boon as the young teenage lead was found to have grown several inches -- giving new gravity to the film's ending. Fateless is, like its maker, a testament to artful determination and a clear vision.

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