Sad awakening
June 17, 2009
By
Richard Jones
A look at The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas
EIGHT-year-old Bruno idolizes his World War 2 soldier father even when he’s told the family has to move away from their German family home.
Once in the new location Bruno (Asa Butterfield) still doesn’t quite comprehend what his father does. The dad (David Thewlis) is actually a senior SS officer and the new commandant at the Auschwitz extermination camp.
Bored at home, Bruno wanders off and comes across a small lad (the boy in the striped pyjamas) sitting by the camp perimeter fence.
Poor, sad, little Shmuel is beautifully played by Jack Scanlon and the two boys gradually become friends. Shmuel desperately needs food, a commodity which Bruno manages to smuggle from home and pass to him.
Despite their shared conversations, Bruno still thinks that Shmuel and the other people he sees are working on a “farm”.
No one at home knows about the boys’ meetings, However, Bruno’s mother (Vera Farmiga) becomes increasingly edgy about the family’s situation, life beyond their garden walls and the way it is disrupting her family and her marriage.
Bruno’s tragic awakening to what is actually happening on the other side of the camp fence forms the centerpiece of the whole stark tale.
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