I broke my heart

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2011)

Judging by some of the reviews on these pages it seems that unless we are shown extensive camps, human beings on the brink of starvation, brutality to upset the hardest of hearts and factual historical scenes then films simply do not represent the horror of The Holocaust. The fact that this film could have happened, and the fact that we cannot detract from the fact that 6 million people were murdered, seems to have been forgotten whilst the whiners moan about minor trivialities. Shame on them!
I had never heard of this story (Holocaust movies are a particular interest of mine) until my teenage son brought the book home from school, he had to read it for a history essay on children in The Holocaust. He read it in one sitting and emerged from his bedroom with reddened eyes and a heavy heart. He said quite simply "That broke my heart".
Bruno and his family move to a new home after Bruno's SS Commandant Father us given a new post. The Father is the head of a labour camp, housing countless Jews. Bruno, becoming increasingly bored and being the usual kind of nosey young boy, decides to explore the woods surrounding his new home. He walks through the woods and eventually comes to a fence, where he spots a little boy, Shmuel, wearing striped pyjamas. The two lonely children strike up a friendship. Bruno visits Shmuel every day and Shmuel gradually tells Bruno that he and his family are being held in this camp, and have to work.
One day as Bruno leaves to visit Shmuel his Mother asks where he is going. Shmuel tells her, and she begins to realise exactly what her husband's new job entails, much to her horror. She forbids Bruno to visit Shmuel again. Bruno ignores her.
To go any further would spoil the film. Needless to say, any film depicting the atrocities carried out by the Nazi's is always upsetting. However the climax of this film is quite simply one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen. It took my breath away and left me quite stunned.
These other reviewers who are crying that the film is a 'chick flick' and that is was rubbish obviously get their jollies from the more visceral images of The Holocaust. The sheer implication of the horrors of the concentration camps impacted on me more than blood and guts ever could.
I hope the heartless critics can one day find a film that satisfies their craving for in your face suffering. I'll stick with this tragic tale.