In 2006, Irish writer John Boyle published his novel called The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Two years later, in 2008, the film of the same name was released. It is a historical drama, placed in the World War II. The film shows Holocaust through the eyes of the main character of the movie, a 8-year-old boy named Bruno.
Bruno’s family relocated from Berlin as the family’s father, a Nazi commandant, had been promoted. Their new home is located in the countryside with not that many residents there. As there are no friends for Bruno to play with, he doesn’t like the new place they live in – until one day Bruno sees ”a farm” from his window. He decides to find the farm, in hopes that he might find a friend or two to play with. And he finds one, even though their friendship is not quite like the ones he has had before. With the naivety of 8-year-old kids and their innocent way of looking at the world, Bruno and his new Jew friend Shmuel take huge risks together and are willing to do a lot for each other – just like Bruno does when he gets into what he still thinks is a farm and tries to help Shmuel to find his dad. What happens then is one thing that will make you want to either scream or cry.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas tells a tragic but beautiful story of friendship and childhood in the world of World War II. One of the main reasons why I think the film is so significant, is the point of view from which it explores the horror of Holocaust. You get to learn about the World War II and the Nazi extermination camps a lot at school and on TV, but you don’t usually get to learn about it in this kind of way. This is the kind of way that really makes you understand how horrible and irreversible the things that happened back then were.
However, that’s not the only thing that makes the film so notable. More than the understanding of the Holocaust horror, you get to see the beautiful innocence that lives in children. At one point in the film Bruno says to Shmuel: ”We’re not supposed to be friends, you and me. We’re meant to be enemies. Did you know that?”. And they both know that, they just don’t understand why. They know we’re all humans and we shouldn’t have to be unequal because of a thing like religion. At the beginning of the film there is a quote by John Betjeman: “Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.” I think it describes the lesson of the film just as tragically and beautifully as the film teaches it.