A Hungarian movie about the Holocaust, “Fateless” is a nightmarish dream that retells the story of the death camps in a way not previously seen and, because of that approach, has an effectiveness different from that of standard narrative films.

Directed by Lajos Koltai, a world-famous cinematographer who, at 59, is making his directorial debut, “Fateless” has a distinct visual sensibility, draining away the color, first to sepia tones, then to near black-and-white, as young Gyuri Koves is taken from 1944 Budapest to Nazi-occupied territories and the camps.

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel “Sorstalansag” by Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz, who wrote the screenplay, “Fateless” has long stretches of minimal dialogue in which the grim images of the horrors of the camps are arranged in a series of haunting vignettes.

Some of those vignettes are depictions of overt brutality on the part of the Nazis: forcing the prisoners to stand for hours on end in the rain and mud, an execution of escapees, pushing men to work until they collapse.

Others show the humiliations of daily life: fighting over bread and soup, the horrid bathing stations and, in a particularly disturbing set of images, hauling still living bodies to the gas chambers and the dead from it.

At the center of the story is Gyuri, played by Marcell Nagy, who delivers a powerful performance well beyond his years. Opening on the day before his father is to report to a forced labor camp, the film follows 14-year-old Gyuri through a long, trying day. A curly haired, quiet kid, Gyuri is discovering girls and not particularly worried about the yellow star he’s forced to wear on his chest.

He’s sent to work in a brick factory after his father departs and his life changes when a martinet-like rural policeman pulls all the Jews off passing buses. Stripped of all their possessions but their clothes, Gyuri and his friends are herded into stables with hundreds of other Jews, then put on trains headed to Poland.

It is on the train that the cruelties begin. Deprived of water, the Jews are forced to bargain with what few things they have left for a drink, then left wanting.

Upon arrival in Auschwitz, Gyuri lies to the Nazi guards, telling them he is 16. That sends him to labor rather than to immediate death in the ovens. His  hair is shorn and his physical transformation begins. As he becomes ever more gaunt, the cinematography becomes ever bleaker.

Transferred first to Buchenwald, then to the smaller, lesser-known slave-labor camp Zeitz, Gyuri is resigned to what he believes is his impending death, resisting the efforts of long-time camp survivor Bandi Citrom (Aron Dimeny) to teach him how to stay alive until the end of the war.

Given its structure and paucity of dialogue, “Fateless” doesn’t have a strong narrative drive. That makes the 140-minute film seem very long. There is also some awkward acting in the early Budapest scenes.

But that does nothing to diminish the power of Koltai’s film, which delivers a view of life in the death camps that is gritty and authentic when you see it and continues to haunt well after.

Because of that, “Fateless,” which was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film, joins “Schindler’s List,” “The Pianist” and “Shoah” as Holocaust films that will be watched for decades to come so we never forget those horrors and those who died in the Nazi death machine.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

Fateless

(3½ stars)

Director: Lajos Koltai

Stars: Marcell Nagy, Aron Dimeny, Andras Kecskes, Daniel Craig

Rated: Not Rated

Now showing: The Ross

The Reel Story: This powerful Hungarian film follows a 14-year-old boy, stunningly played by Nagy, as he is taken to the Holocaust death camps.