Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
2008
**½
Director: Mark Herman
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, David Hayman, Rupert Friend

During WW2, Bruno and his family move from Berlin to the countryside, where his father takes a post as a concentration camp commandant. The 8-year-old Bruno, however, thinks they're living next to a farm whose eccentric inhabitants wear striped pyjamas. Eventually he forms a secret friendship through the fence with a boy his age. This well-intentioned and well-acted film attempts to make Holocaust digestible for children without shying away from the horrific facts. If only I could believe the events that lead to the tragic ending. It's impossible to accept the total innocence and naivety of the two boys, they should be well aware of the existence of evil at their age. Incidentally, the death camp portrayed in the film doesn't seem to have any guards, or prisoners for that matter. Adapted from a novel by John Boyne.