The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has a compelling premise that sets this story apart from other Holocaust stories. The only comparison would be to imagine Life is Beautiful without Roberto Benigni’s charm and jest. The story is told through the eyes of Bruno, an 8-year-old German boy during the Second World War. His Aryan eyes and dark brown hair show the hypocrisy of this harrowing tale. Originally, author John Boyne set out to write a children’s story, which found favour with adults too. The innocence of the story is similar to the comedy expressed in Life is Beautiful, as there’s a touch of bitter irony with each perspective. That vulnerability is exploited towards a dramatic conclusion and everything fades to the grey of the indelible past. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a tightrope performance of sorts as the production tries to stretch the limit of young Bruno’s ignorance without presenting him as blatantly oblivious. Our protagonist, young Bruno, is confronted with a horrible misconstrued truth, which is padded by his parents for his own protection. Double standards are abound and the young boy is caught in a rift between his mother and his father, who have been stationed near the so-called “farm”.
The Boy in Striped Pyjamas seems ridiculous in retrospect, yet the same contentious issues still plague society. The idea of acceptance and racial tolerance are buzzwords that still haven’t fully permeated. The argument is still as relevant as it was in 1945, and it’s strange to think that these bloody, inhumane blotches on world history haven’t had greater impact on the continuing racial conflicts of today. The film displays an array of characters with varying degrees of integrity and motivation. This is one of the most varied depictions of the Holocaust in the sense that each character is represented as independent, with their own perspective on the camp and the Reich’s policies.
The cast is free of big Hollywood names, which makes the experience more authentic and immersive. The issues are the big fish in this production and every performance seems to contribute to an excellent team effort. The direction is measured and one feels indebted to the little character of Bruno as he makes his treacherous maiden voyage of self-identity within a war-ravaged and maniacal group consciousness. The film is no fairy tale, although director, Mark Herman chooses to leave most of the violence off-screen. The conditions are shocking, but Herman always justifies the audience’s exposure to the ethnic “cleansing”. There are one or two minor flaws in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but the main criticism is that the film was shot in English. Some would argue that shooting in English counters any perceived bias towards the portrayal of the Germans, but this authenticity would have elevated the realism and brought the story home. Downfall was much more powerful, because it was shot in German by Germans. While the German language version may have appeared to be more sympathetic, the immersion would have been more complete.
The bottom line: Haunting.
