Adapted from Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz's semi-autobiographical novel, the film is set in 1944 Budapest, where 14-year-old Gyura (Marcell Nagy) lives with his extended family. When the Nazis solidify their control of the country, first his father and then Gyura are sent to separate concentration camps. Despite the lack of narrative drive during its considerable 140-minute running time, the film attains a significant cumulative power, due both to the horrors being depicted and the hallucinatory and even elegant visual style in which they are rendered.

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