We're not supposed to be friends, you and me. We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?

Rating: 9/10 (15 August 2009)

One of the difficult things about life in the military is the fact that a promotion, especially at the higher levels, is usually accompanied by a transfer. This can be very hard on children, as they are constantly giving up their friends.
Bruno's (Asa Butterfield) father (David Thewlis) is a Nazi Officer and he is promoted and sent to run a camp. Bruno has to give up his friends in Berlin and make the best of it on a "farm" that is really not a farm.
We are well into the film before Bruno meets Smuel (Jack Scanlon), the boy in the title. He is naive about his situation, He is only eight, as is Smuel. Their relationship develops to a point where it is clear that both are benefiting, and both will be truly disappointed.
A conflict arises between the parents, Thewlis and Vera Farmiga, when she finds out what they are doing at the camp. Not just a conflict, but a real rift in their relationship.
The ending will kick you in the gut.