Director: Mark Herman
Writers: John Boyne (novel), Mark Herman (screenplay)
Release Date: 14 November 2008 (USA)
Genre: Drama | Thriller | War
Tagline: A timeless story of innocence lost and humanity found.
Also Known As: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (USA)
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some mature thematic material involving the Holocaust.
Runtime: 94 min | Israel:93 min
Country: UK | USA
Language: English
Filming Locations: Budapest, Hungary
Company: BBC Films
We enter the world of Bruno (Asa Butterfield), an eight year-old boy, where things are not as innocent as they seem to him. Bruno is proud of his father (David Thewlis who played Professor Lupin in the Harry Potter movies) and has no doubts that the work he is doing for their country is important and something great. He keeps hearing everyone talk about how his father's work will go down in history. Bruno is a little confused about what great thing his father could be doing working at the "farm" down the road.
No one in the family understands exactly what the father is doing, but Bruno's mother (Vera Formiga) at least understands that her husband is commanding a prison camp. She orders Bruno to never leave the yard and blocks off an area from which Bruno can see the "farm".
Bruno is bored as has no other children to play with except for his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) who is suddenly trying to act older than she is because she has a crush on the blonde-haired, blue-eyed soldier, Lieutenant Kotler (Rupert Friend), who is her father's assistant. So Bruno goes through elaborate measures to sneak away and go have a look at the farm up the road. There he meets a boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) sitting on the other side of the fence. Neither boy seems to understand what is going on, and they form a friendship. this friendship is the key of this movie.
The ending of this movie had one of the most powerful endings of any movie I've ever seen. The movie is deserving of a best picture Oscar and Vera Formiga deserves an Oscar for best supporting actress, in my opinion.
6/6 for me.
