The Holocaust has been explored quite a bit over the last decade in film.  The filmmakers have dealt with the victims and the tormentors.  There has also been films dealing with the brave people who tried to help the Jews and other disenfranchised people escape the persecution.  “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” looks at this terrible period through the eyes of a German boy.

The movie starts innocently enough with children playing in the streets.  There is a bustle of people trying to get to stores or their place of business.  The camera then pans up to show the infamous Nazi insignia adorning a building.

One of the boys who was playing in the streets is Bruno (Asa Butterfield).  Bruno is an energetic youth who just wants to play.  He loves the house that he lives in and his friends in the neighborhood.  Unfortunately for Bruno, his father is in the German army and is scheduled to be stationed elsewhere.

Before the move, the family throws a garish party.  The man of the hour comes down the stairs in his full military garb.  David Thewlis plays the father with icy detachment.  This is a long ways away from the more light hearted fare of Harry Potter for Thewlis.  His father is proud of his son’s involvement with the army and their mission to save the country.  His mother is quite the opposite.  She does not approve of the country’s policies and is not afraid to voice her concerns.  She is quickly hushed up by her son who tells her her opinions are dangerous to have.

The new house is located in the rolling countryside.  Bruno is skeptical of his new surroundings.  His sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) seems more receptive.  The mother (Vera Farmiga) tries to make them feel more at home.  We never do find out the first names of the parents. 

Farmiga makes a very strong impression as the mother.  She was previously in “The Departed” as the therapist that Leo and Matt Damon both woo.  Her performance there was one of the weakest aspects of that film.  It is quite the opposite in “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”.  At first the mother is quite supportive of her husband and his duty.  She is well aware that Jews are being held in concentration camps.  She does not know however of the mass slaughter that went on there.  The pain in her face is evident when a German officer lets slip of the dirty secret.  Farmiga shows off a wide range of emotions that convey the situation at hand.

Bruno is unaware that the “farm” that he sees out his bedroom window is really a concentration camp where his father is a commanding officer.  One day Bruno is playing and he finds the camp.  He befriends a Jewish boy Shmuel (Jack Scanlon) who is the same age as Bruno.  Bruno never quite understands the situation that Shmuel is in.  Shmuel tries to explain things, but it never dawns on Bruno.  Even Shmuel doesn’t know of the gas chambers that are located on the premises.  Scanlon and Butterfield play off each other well in these difficult scenes.

Thewlis and Farmiga also have several strong scenes together.  The verbal jabs that the actors throw at each other after the truth is revealed are fascinating to watch.  The realization that the mother is living with a monster slowly gets drawn out.  The evidence of this is even more clear in a dining room scene with his family and a German officer, who let slip that they killed Jews at the camp to the mother.  The father inquires from the officer about his family.  The officer states that his father left the country for Switzerland.  The father is quite upset that the officer did not inform the government of his father’s opposition to the government as required by law.  This inquisition eventually leads to the officer killing a Jewish servant, while the father watches.  He never lifts a hand to stop the savage beating from happening.  It is a chilling moment where it shows that the father had no respect for human life.

The movie though belongs to Bruno.  He just wants to play and have little adventures.  His parents hire a tutor for him and his sister.  The tutor is nationalistic to put it lightly.  He teaches them to hate the Jews and to believe in the cause of the country.  Gretel takes up this cause with great enthusiasm.  She hangs up Nazi posters and cuts out Nazi propaganda from the newspaper.  Bruno is unaffected by the teachings.  His friend at the camp is Jewish and he knows he isn’t evil.

“The Boy in the Strip Pajamas” is a fascinating look at war through a child’s eyes.  It also effectively shows how a horrible secret can undermine an entire family.  The last fifteen minutes of the film is tense and a bit predictable.  It does not however take away the power of what came before it.