Storyline
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.
Directors
Cast
Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Jim Norton, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Rupert Friend, David Hayman, Amber Beattie, Sheila Hancock, Cara Horgan, Zac Mattoon O'Brien, Charlie Baker, Richard Johnson, Domonkos Németh, Henry Kingsmill, Zsuzsa Holl, László Áron, Iván Verebély, Béla Fesztbaum, Mihály Szabados, Zsolt Sáfár Kovács, Gábor Harsai, Julia Papp
Trailer
Reviews
88
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not only about Germany during the war, although the story it tells is heartbreaking in more than one way. It is about a value system that survives like a virus.
83
The A.V. Club
The film has any number of chances to exploit the setting and Butterfield's wide-eyed innocence, but instead, it mines a vast, eerie tension by keeping both boys in the dark.
80
Boyne's tale is starkly cautionary, and writer-director Herman handles a difficult topic with great sensitivity, drawing splendid performances from his young actors with David Thewlis and Vera Farmiga and the other grown-ups reliably efficient.
80
Variety
Opening half-hour has some of the best stuff in the movie, walking a precarious line between black irony and showing the war from a totally German viewpoint, without tipping over into gallows humor or parody.
80
Village Voice
In adapting Irishman John Boyne's acclaimed young-adult novel, writer-director Mark Herman (Little Voice) draws beautifully modulated performances from his two child actors, who navigate a full range of emotions from wonder to betrayal to guilt.
