Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) stays fairly close to the young adult book by John Boyne. The basic storyline is that eight year old Bruno and his family move from Berlin, Germany to Poland where Bruno's father as been given command of Auschwitz concentration camp. Bruno has no idea of the atrocities that are happening at Auschwitz, much less that it is a concentration camp. He thinks that the place is a farm and that the people there are workers on the farm. Bruno is told to stay away from the "farm," but there is nothing to do in the remote location and he soon wanders over to see what's going on. There, Bruno meets Shmuel, a Jewish boy the same age as Bruno. The two strike up a friendship playing games through the fence that separates them. When Bruno's family decides that the mother and kids should go to live with an aunt back in Germany, Bruno can't bear to leave his friend behind.

To say any more about the story would be to ruin the experience of either the movie or the book. For an older viewer, parts of the storyline may seem simplistic, but keep in mind that this is written for young adults. Some may wonder why Bruno does not figure out what Auschwitz is on his own, but when you consider his age, and that he has no background information or experiences that would lead him to a conclusion, it is understandable why he continues to think of the place as a farm. The movie is not the typical Holocaust movie. Boy in the Striped Pajamas is filmed in bright color without the usual darkness and sepia tones other Holocaust movies have. This creates an interesting contrast from the dark subject matter that serves to make the story more realistic. In real life, not every bad event happens on a rainy day.

Directed by Mark Herman; Starring Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Amber Beattie, and David Thewlis.

For teachers, there is a classroom edition of the movie with extra features you might want to check out.

Movie; 13+; Miramax, 2008