First Hit: This is a strong, powerful, and sad film. The view of the world from a boy’s point of view is accurate and relevant.
Mark Herman, the director, brings the right touch and level from which he wants you to view this film in the opening sequence.
It is of Bruno (played by Asa Butterfield) and three of his companions running through the streets of a German city with their arms out as if they were airplanes shooting down other airplanes or on bombing runs.
The powerful innocence of boys playing out this fantasy during war time is a reminder about how we teach children through our actions. Bruno learns that evening that they must move because his dad, a German officer played by David Thewlis, is being transferred.
The boy is sad at leaving his friends and the next morning the boys come over to say goodbye and they spend their time pretending to shoot and kill each other. The transfer takes him to the country where his father is the head of a prison charged with holding and exterminating Jews.
The boy stumbles upon the prison one day and meets Shmuel (played by Jack Scanlon) an 8 year old boy himself. What Bruno doesn’t get is why Shmuel wears striped pajamas and can’t leave the fenced community to come play with him.
The friendship grows and so does Bruno’s understanding of what is really going on.
For me Scanlon gave an incredible performance and the moment he was on the screen I was hooked. Butterfield was very strong as the main character and the intensity of his eyes, especially the first time he gazes out his window at “the farm” shows you his depth. Vera Farmiga was perfect as Butterfield’s mother as we watch her move from being a supportive wife to one who slowly wakes up to the madness her husband is creating inside the camp.
Overall: This is an extremely well crafted film and catches a boy’s point of view with clarity, crispness, and intelligence.