10/12/2003 - A prestigious project for award-winning Hungarian cinematographer Lajos Koltai’s debut as a director. The adaptation of Nobel prize winner Imre Kertesz’s novel, includes participation by Italian composer, Ennio Morricone

The Hungarian Oscar nominated cinematographer, Lajos Koltai will start shooting his first feature film on December 15th, adapted from the book by 2002 Nobel Prize winning author, Imre Kertesz, Fateless.

The international best-seller, translated into more than a dozen languages, tells the gripping story of Gyorgy Koves, a teenage Hungarian Jewish boy who volunteers to go to a concentration camp in Germany during World War II, convinced that his life will be safer there, following his father’s own departure to a camp.

The film is set to be shot in Hungary and Germany over an 11 week period, and is a co-production between Hungarian Magic Media Inc, German Euro Arts and the UK’s Renegade Films. Other financial backers for the €10m period film include the Hungarian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation, MDR and the regional funds MDM and MFG in Germany and UK’s tax financier, Ingenious Media.

“We had envisioned a film of the novel well in advance of the author winning the Nobel Prize”, said producer, Peter Barbalics from Hungarian Magic Media, “but clearly, the worldwide acclaim for the book has made us internationally ambitious for the project. This will be a different look at a concentration camp experience, seen as it is through the eyes of a young teenager. Boys tend to act like boys wherever they are, and there is humour and humanity to be found, even amidst unspeakable tragedy”.

Cinematographer Lajos Koltai was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Malèna. He twice won a European Film Award, for Sunshine and Legend of 1900 and is a regular collaborator with Istvan Szabo, for whom he photographed Mephisto, Confidence, Colonel Redl and Taking Sides.

Other prestigious names attached to the project include Italian composer, Ennio Morricone and award-winning Hungarian cinematographer, Gyula Pados (Hotel Splendide and The Heart of Me).