The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) - film review 

During the Second World War an 8-year-old boy, Bruno (Asa Butterfield) lives with his family in Berlin. His father (David Thewlis), who is an SS officer, gets a promotion and they have to move to the countryside. Bruno notices that near their new house is “a farm” and he is curious why “the farmers” wear pajamas all day long. Bruno is bored because he doesn’t have any friends in their new home and there is nothing to do, so one day he decides to go to “the farm” and meets a Jewish boy, Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), who is on the other side of an electric fence. They make friends and Bruno starts to visit him regularly by the fence.

The film was a pretty good but somehow it was a little bit lame. Especially the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel should have been deeper in my opinion. Even at the end of the movie they hardly knew each other. I can’t say anything bad about the actors. Actually they were very convincing and everyone did their job well. The young boy’s innocence and unawareness was touching. Bruno had no idea what was going on and Shmuel seemed like he was oblivious to the seriousness of the situation too, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have encouraged Bruno to come to the concentration camp. I don’t think that he was cruel and did it for revenge.

The staging was very good. The filmmakers have clearly paid attention to the look of the film. I could also feel the atmosphere and people’s conflicting opinions in wartime Germany.

My favorite parts of the movie are probably when young lieutenant Kurt Kotler (Rupert Friend) accidentally reveals to Bruno’s mother (Vera Farmiga) what they really do to the Jews and the following discussions between the father and the mother. The family’s dining scene with Kotler and grandfather was also exciting.

 

I would recommend this film to people who are interested in the Holocaust and its horrors. It’s very interesting and terrifying at the same time how on earth did a tiny man with funny moustache and a loud voice manage to raise an entire nation against the Jews. “They smell even worse when they burn, don't they.”