Bus or train? It's not a decision that people expect to change their lives.

But this is 1944, and for Budapest teenager Gyuri (Nagy) and other permit-carrying Jews, the everyday bus trip to work leads directly to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Indignation turns to resignation as the train's cold, confused and thirsty passengers realise that the next stop could be their last.

After mercifully brief experiences of the notorious Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps, Gyuri is taken to the 'provincial' labour camp at Zeitz with everything but his dark curls intact.

The place is small but there is nothing insignificant about the endless days of back-breaking work, pitiful rations and relentlessly grim conditions endured by the prisoners.

Yet, perversely, Gyuri develops a sense of happiness and belonging as the months drag on. His favourite time is the hour before bed, a daily respite from hunger and hard work during which he enjoys the camaraderie of his fellow inmates.

But the camp gradually erodes both body and soul. The men stand to attention for hours either to witness the hanging of would-be escapees or simply to indulge their captors' cruelty (these are sapping scenes to watch).

An infection takes Gyuri out of the workplace and into the sick dorm where, despite earning extra rations for two days by keeping secret the death of his bunk mate, his health deteriorates.

Since the dying are treated in the same way as the dead, Gyuri almost doesn't see the day when American troops (including a cameo-ing Daniel Craig) free the camp. His body has been liberated, but his return home suggests that his spirit has not.

Fateless is a striking experience. As the situation becomes increasingly bleak, so Oscar-nominated cinematographer Koltai gradually leaches his film of colour (though exposing Gyuri's infected knee in all its maggot-infested lividity is a needless exception).

Both Imre Kertész's 1975 novel and the thought-provoking film from which it is adapted deserve the highest praise for pointing out that the Holocaust was not about happy endings.

Elliott Noble