Brave and interesting period piece about two young boys and their innocent friendship set amidst a backdrop of hatred and death.

Rating: 7/10 (25 September 2010)

The large fence which separates a young German boy Bruno from another young Jewish boy named Shmuel, whom is imprisoned in a concentration camp, is the sole physical barrier blocking off contact and physical play between the pair of them. Where running; mischief and make believe misadventures with other people of his age were the order of the day when young Bruno lived at his prior address in another part of the nation of Germany, his time in the countryside with his family and distinguished father of the Army sees him only ever come face to face with one child of his age. The obstacle that is the perimeter fence of this camp forces Bruno to sit down and talk with another boy, and therein lies the core of a really affecting from British director Mark Herman, a lone stranded journey into the persistent unknown for a young protagonist as his discoveries and new found sense of adventure builds to a somewhat gut wrenching finale.
The opening shot of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas encompasses the then German flag of the Nazi emblem on a red background and the apparent transparentness these flags carry as we vaguely see the figures of those whom occupy the space on the ground directly behind the flag. It's fitting, as the film is a sort gazing through into the standard-bearing Nazi family and furthermore into the lives of a cluster of people during The Second World War in Germany. The study is headed by young eight year old Bruno, played really well by English child actor Asa Butterfield, whom himself begins to see through all of what's around him through the bond with the aforementioned Jewish boy grows stronger by each scene they share.
The film begins in Berlin with Bruno and a batch of his friends charging through the public streets of a German town that is seeing its Jews extradited and evicted, they re-enact war games and pretend to be fighter planes when they aren't mock shooting one another like soldiers; the activity around them bearing no significance nor much interest to Bruno or his friends. While hundreds of people around him are feeling the full effects of a war, something Bruno is ignorant to at this time, he plays out mock war-games with his friends for pure amusement. The boy and his family are due to be extradited, too. His father, Ralph (Thewlis), is a higher up in the German Army and along with mother Elsa (Farmiga) and sister Gretel (Beattie) they venture off to the countryside so that Ralph may take charge of a nearby Concentration Camp. Once there the family takes board in a large nearby house which is isolated from the rest of its surroundings, but Bruno is disenchanted by this new place of dwelling; his prior exposure to many kids his age and his need for expansive locales in which to play gone. One day, he tries to find excitement and adventure beyond the complex's limits, despite being warned not to go beyond them, and amongst the nearby wood separating the camp from the grounds.
It is Bruno's tutor himself whom tells him he needs to move away from fiction and more into fact. They are, of course, talking about the books Bruno has a habit of reading but the greater extent of this statement from the author parallelling the lead's arc is fairly obvious. Refusing to heed the advice from his stern faced mother, Bruno heads out into the woods and stumbles across that large looking establishment the film has already shown us out of a window through young Bruno's gaze. In the far corner, sat behind some large construction items, is the titular boy in striped pyjamas Shmuel (Scanlon), who is to Bruno at last a human being his age. As mentioned, the large wired fence separating the two disables an ability to bond in a manic and playful manner more resembling the Bruno of old; instead the film opting for the two to partake in exchanges linked as to why Shmuel is named as such; why he wears what looks like the titular pyjamas and what he's doing in that large outdoor zone. He had friendships back in Berlin, but through Shmuel he learns the true meaning of the word.
The film's distinct tone and atmosphere arrives by way of the obvious sensation of having seen the sort of content explored in the film before, ie; The Holocaust, but always with that knowing sense of tragedy and sadness as adults try to comprehend what it is they're facing or going through. Here, it's what you know disturbingly but effectively filtered through an initial perspective of naivety, before things gradually become more obvious for those at the centre of the film. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a well made and meticulously observed piece, unfolded with exactly the sort of mature attitude required and never for one moment dragging as it progressively revolves around an issue the audience is immediately savvy to filtered through a viewpoint which needs time and natural progression to catch up. The film is an edifying character piece, documenting a specific time in history and the specific, now infamous, beliefs from said time without ever falling back into the sort of groove something passable but ultimately underwhelming such as Goodbye Bafana or Imagining Argentina resembles. Its build to what is a terrifying and distorting finale due to its sudden insertion of a more rapid pace, is equally affecting; a rounding off of a film thoroughly worth seeing.