The boy in the striped pajamas - Review

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2013)

Original Title: The boy in the striped pajamas Title in Portuguese: O menino do pijama listrado Year: 2008 Director: Mark Herman Cast: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Amber Beattie, Jack Scanlon Screenplay writer: Mark Herman, based on the book of John Boyne Length: 94 minutes
The film starts at the moment in which Bruno (Asa Butterfield), an eight years old boy, is moving with his family from Berlin to the countryside. They were moving because Bruno's father (David Thewlis), commandant of Adolf Hitler army, got a promotion and would need to work nearby a concentration camp. The story is shown from the perspective of looking Bruno, and early on the film, the boy is supposed to be different from his sister, Gretel (Amber Beattie), who apparently does not care about the moving house, but she cares in trying to face the facts like an older girl than she really was, in the view of Bruno. The boy shows to be upset about the moving, because like an eight years old boy, he does not want to go to a place far from his friends, and he thought his house the better in the world, but nonetheless, he has to go with his family, even without understanding what is happening and the political regime of the time, the reason for his father needs to move. When they arrive in the new house, all look like satisfied, except Bruno, who just goes to his room and looks out his bedroom window, where he sees the camp concentration, but he thinks that it was a farm. He observes the place and the people inside it, what look like strange, because the striped clothes that Jews were wearing, and in the innocent view of the boy, it were simply pajamas. After it, Bruno starts to question his parents and his sister about what he had seen, and the answers never were convincing. His distrust increases when a Jew man comes in the kitchen of his house, and his mother cannot explain who the man is and what he was doing there. So, Bruno, driven by curiosity, as a boy who wishes to be an explorer, goes to look for answers to his questions. Then, he discovers a fence in the back of his house, that is the same place that he had seen by his window, and there, he sees a Jew boy, in the other side of the fence, who called Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) and decides to talk to him, and he discovers that both were the same age, and the boys become friends. But, Bruno still does not understand why he and Shmuel were separate by that fence, and the contradiction between what his family, except his mother, that shows to oppose to regime, and the other people said about the Jew, that they were horrible people, and his friend Shmuel, that does not look like this. The end of this story is obviously bad. Bruno decides to go in the camp concentration, so he passes under the fence, in the purpose of helping Shmuel to find his father, and the result of this action is the death of the two boys. The actors acting, mainly the children, is as good as the story. Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon had a great challenge in this film and both of them have not left to be desired. So, for those who like films about dramas or the Nazism time, the film is highly indicated, or for those who simply like an exciting friendship story.