Fateless – Imre Kertész

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A film based on his novel Fatelessness was made in Hungary in 2005 for which he wrote the script.[3] Although sharing the same title, the movie is more autobiographical than the book. The film was released at various dates throughout the world in 2005 and 2006.

“The film had to try very hard to avoid Holocaust clichés,” Mr. Kertész said. “It could be emotional, but never sentimental.” (NYtimes)

Part I/14 of Fateless (You can watch the entire film on youtube).

Imre Kertész imre (via)

“For writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”

“I am a medium for the spirit of Auschwitz. Auschwitz speaks through me. Everything else seems stupid to me, compared to that.”
Nobel Prize

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Children and Adolescents in Buchenwald Concentration Camp

The Last Word: Interview with Irme

Q: You’re the first Hungarian to win a Nobel literature prize. How is it to be getting a hero’s welcome?
A: It’s very strange for me because I’m certainly no hero. I’ve always looked on my writing as a very private matter. For decades I had no audience and lived on the fringes of society.
Q: You’ve said that it’s easier to write literature in a dictatorship than in a democracy.
A: That was too sweeping a statement, but there’s a truth to it. Because I didn’t write what the communist government wanted to see, I was cut off and alone with my work. I never thought my book would ever be published, and so I had the freedom to write as radically as I wanted, to go as deep inside as I wanted. In a democracy you have to find a market niche, make sure a novel is “interesting” and “spectacular.” That may be the toughest censorship of all.