Starring: Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon Director: Mark Herman Year of original release: 2008 Genre: War drama
The film
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a moving and tragic film adapted from a popular novel of the same name by Irish writer John Boyne. A story of the Holocaust, the movie explores the terrible things that were happening inside Germany during the second world war (1939-45) from the point of view of an eight year-old German boy.
The boy sees, but does not understand, what is going on around him. He knows his father is a 'soldier', but does not know the true nature of his father's role in the war.
The final scenes are heart-breaking although some critics have said the movie is historically inaccurate because young boys could not have been involved in events depicted in the film. But writer John Boyle's research revealed that in January, 1945, more than 700 boys were in the Auschwitz concentration camp where the movie implies the story takes place.
The plot
Eight-year-old Bruno and his family move from Berlin to an estate in the countryside when his father, an army officer, takes up a job as commandant of a Nazi concentration camp. Bruno knows nothing about what his father's new position involves and his questions get brushed off by his mother every time. He does his best to settle down in his new home. His parents give him strict instructions that he is only to play in certain areas of the estate. But the boy is bored and missing his friends so he starts secretly exploring the forbidden territory behind the villa, where he sees people working on what he thinks is a farm. But why are they wearing striped pyjamas? Bruno sees a young boy his own age sitting behind the fence in an unguarded corner of the farm, and starts talking to him. A secret friendship grows between the two boys. Yet events lead both Bruno and his new friend towards a tragic outcome.
