THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS SERVES AS AN UNLIKELY ROLE MODEL
A nagging question about the Holocaust is whether, aside from mass Heil Hitler rallies, ordinary Germans supported Hitler and his Final Solution. Based on the novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas contributes to the debate by portraying a fictional friendship between two eight-year-old boys—Auschwitz prisoner Shmuel (played by Jack Scanlon) and Bruno (played by Asa Butterfield), the son of that camp’s commandant (played by David Thewlis). To set the premise for the friendship, the film begins in Berlin, where Bruno contentedly enjoys playing with several boys his own age. Informed that his father has been promoted but must relocate to a location, Bruno is upset that he will miss his friends. And indeed he has no playmates in the new home, which is to be in the middle of nowhere. When he spots what appears to be a farming community, his curiosity takes him to the barbed wire perimeter of Auschwitz, where he has conversations and plays checkers with Shmuel, who is also for a time a servant in the family’s home. The move also impacts other members of the family. His grandmother (played by Sheila Hancock), evidently sickened by the course of events in Nazi Germany, falls ill and dies. His mother (played by Vera Farmiga) also has strong opinions and clashes with his father. His sister Gretel (played by Amber Beattie), who is amorously attracted to his father’s assistant, Lieutenant Kotler (played by Rupert Friend), becomes disaffected after he is sent to the front because he failed to disclose that his father left Germany because of political opposition to Nazi rule. The father eventually agrees to have the mother take the children to live near Heidelberg, but tragedy strikes on the day of their scheduled departure. Directed by Mark Herman, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas has been nominated by the Political Film Society as best film on human rights of 2008. MH