The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a 2008 historical drama film.
Plot[]
Bruno, an eight-year-old German boy living in Berlin, is uprooted to rural occupied Poland with his family after his father Ralf, an SS officer, is promoted. The boy notices an extermination camp near the back garden from his bedroom window, but believes it to be a farm; his mother Elsa forbids him from going in the back garden.
Ralf organises Herr Liszt, a private tutor, to teach Nazi propaganda and antisemitism to indoctrinate Bruno and his elder sister, Gretel. This, along with Gretel's crush on Lieutenant Kurt Kotler, a young colleague of her father's, makes her fanatical in her support for the Nazi agenda. Bruno struggles to adjust to the rhetoric in the teaching after Pavel, a doctor-turned-family slave, comes to Bruno's aid after he sustains a minor injury.
Bruno sneaks into the woods, arriving at a barbed wire fence surrounding the camp. He befriends Shmuel, another boy his age. Bruno meets Shmuel regularly, sneaking him food, and learns that he is a Jew who was brought to the camp with his parents.
Elsa inadvertently discovers from Kurt that the smell from the camp is in fact burning prisoners, and she angrily confronts her husband. Later that night, Kurt reveals his father left Germany for Switzerland to avoid national service and is berated by Ralf; embarrassed, Kurt viciously beats Pavel for spilling a glass of wine.
Bruno sees Shmuel working in his home and offers him cake. Kurt finds them talking and berates Shmuel. After seeing him eating, Shmuel informs Kurt that Bruno offered the cake, which he fearfully denies. Later, Bruno tries to apologise to Shmuel, but he does not reappear at the fence for several days. A short time after, Bruno clandestinely watches his father and other officers reviewing a propaganda film depicting the camp's conditions as positive.
Ralf informs his family that Kurt was transferred to the Eastern Front. Angered, Elsa reveals the reason for his transfer was because he had not initially alerted the authorities about his father.
Bruno continues returning to the fence and eventually, Shmuel reappears, but with visible injuries. Bruno apologises to Shmuel, who forgives him. In Berlin, Ralf's mother Nathalie – who disapproves of the Nazi regime – is killed by an Allied bombing raid. At the funeral, Elsa tries to remove a wreath from the Führer out of respect for Nathalie and her beliefs, but Ralf stops her, causing them to fall out after the service.
Back home, Elsa informs Ralf she does not want the children living in the vicinity of the camp. So, Ralf then informs Bruno and Gretel their mother is taking them to live with their extended family until the war is over.
Bruno visits Shmuel before he leaves and learns that Shmuel's father has disappeared after being transferred to a different work gang. He decides to help Shmuel find him. Shmuel provides Bruno with a prisoner's striped outfit and a cap to cover his unshaven head, then Bruno digs under the fence to join him. However, the boys are suddenly rounded up by the guards.
Gretel and Elsa learn of Bruno's disappearance and burst into Ralf's meeting to alert him. A search is launched and a dog tracks Bruno's scent to his discarded clothing. Ralf enters the camp as the prisoners are sent to a gas chamber, where pesticide pelletsare poured from a hole in the ceiling, filling the chamber with toxic gas. Bruno and Shmuel are killed in the gas chamber, leaving Ralf, Elsa, and Gretel devastated.
Cast[]
- Asa Butterfield as Bruno, a young German boy
- Vera Farmiga as Elsa, Bruno's mother
- David Thewlis as Ralf, Bruno's father
- Jack Scanlon as Shmuel, a young Jewish boy
- Amber Beattie as Gretel, Bruno's older sister
- Rupert Friend as Lieutenant Kurt Kotler
- David Hayman as Pavel, a concentration camp prisoner
- Sheila Hancock as Nathalie, Bruno's grandmother
- Richard Johnson as Matthias, Bruno's grandfather
- Cara Horgan as Maria
- Jim Norton as Herr Liszt