The Boy in the Striped Pajamas review

There have been countless films about the Holocaust. Filmmakers seem to be captivated by modern time’s darkest hour and probably for a good reason. As a human, it’ll make us never forget, which is good so we can avoid evil like that again and as filmmakers there is so much narrative drama to weave stories from. As such, we as viewers have seen almost every story told, but even then, when done right, we accept the fact that we saw another Holocaust movie.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is one such movie, but told this time through the eyes of a young boy. 8 year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is a fun-loving lad living in Berlin, when his dad announces that the family is to be moved to a new home, in the country. This upsets Bruno because he’ll miss his friends but his parents assure him he’ll meet new friends. He does, another 8 year-old named Schmuel (Jack Scanlon).  But he’s different than his Berlin friends because he is on a “farm (as Bruno mistakes)”, there’s a fence keeping them apart, and later as Schmuel reveals, he’s a Jew.

For most of the film, this dynamic works. Bruno doesn’t make the connection or the difference between his friend and him, even when his sister hints at why. Schmuel is his friend, a friend that wears “pajamas all the time”. Why is there a funky smell in the air? Why doesn’t his grandma approve of his father’s newest promotion? These questions are easily answered by us in the audience. Bruno’s father is a Nazi commander assigned to watch over a concentration camp and Schmuel is a Jew. We know the difference, sadly, as we know what he smells. But we’re seeing this in an adult perceptive, let alone our post-WWII knowledge.

It doesn’t matter as director; screenwriter Mark Herman handles this delicate subject matter neatly and precisely. The story is told through Bruno’s eyes. What a perfect concept! Imagine us young, impossibly naïve; could we understand a country’s war policy or why we were told that this person is different and a vermin? I don’t think so.

Nazis just make great villains, don’t they? I think the film almost gets too heavy handed with its message at the final minutes, but I say good. Yes, we’ve seen a million stories on the Holocaust, we know it was a dark time full of evil, a stain on modern civilization, but it’s a lesson worth repeating. The film is beautifully staged and acted, especially Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon, who play the youngsters. They capture the innocence and confusion perfectly. The film’s an emotional heart breaker.

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