The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

This film takes place during World War II in Germany. A young boy comes home from school to find his family is planning for a dinner party and discussing moving to the countryside since their dad got a promotion. The young boy, Bruno, isn’t pleased about the move since he loves the house they’re in and all his friends. The family’s new home is a bid drab and gloomy and not at all warm and inviting like their last home – more of a walled compound than a home. It’s also in the middle of freakin nowhere in the countryside. Bruno can see a farm from his window with a bunch of children. He says the kids are a bit strange, since they all wear pajamas. He asks his mom if he can play with the children, and when she finds out what their “pajamas” are, she freaks out a little bit. The father tries to explain who the farmers are by saying those are not people, and that he should not play with the children on the farm. While Bruno explores, he comes across a kid in striped pajamas on the other side of a fence. Bruno doesn’t understand what’s going on with the whole concentration camp situation, so he thinks this is just another kid playing. Bruno begins to understand some of what his tutor and sister and father are teaching him about Jews. But not enough. He arranges to have the little boy bring him some of the pajamas and a hat to sneak him into the camp. The little boy can’t find his father and Bruno wants to help him out. Bruno digs under the fence and gets into the camp dressed as a prisoner. Things don’t go well for Bruno or the other little boy, or for a lot of Jewish people during World War II. I won’t ruin the ending, but it’s not bunnies and flowers. This film is extremely well done and is very touching. The photography is great and the acting is superb. The movie implies a lot without showing the horrors of the holocaust and shows how children are brought up in the culture without knowing they are being brainwashed. Yes, you have to overlook the fact that everyone has British accents in Germany, but that’s easy to do, right? It’s a very depressing movie, but it’s still quite good.