More than 15 years after its release, viewers are struggling to move on from this film, still calling it “absolutely devastating”.
Asa Butterfield plays the lead role of an eight-year-old child in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, set during the horrors of the Second World War. Based on the novel by John Boyne, the drama plays out against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Poland and doesn’t shy away from an intense storyline that leaves viewers in tears.
A Rotten Tomatoes review claimed: “Such a heartbreaking story about love, friendship, and the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. Other than Schindler’s List, I’ve never sobbed so hard in my life.”
Released in 2008, the film stars the Netflix Sex Education actor as little Bruno, whose father is an SS officer whose promotion requires the family to up and move to Poland. When exploring one day, the boy stumbles upon a concentration camp that he believes to be a farm near the back of his garden, where his mother soon bans him from playing.
In an act of rebellion, Bruno sneaks off into the woods and finds himself met with a barbed wire fence surrounding the camp. It’s here that he meets a boy of the same age named Smuel, and their friendship begins.
Day in day out, he begins to visit Smuel on the otherside of the fence, and brings him offerings of food. He soon learns that his new friend is in fact a Jew, who was brought to the camp by his parents.
A review says: “This movie had me in tears after knowing the plot of it. It breaks my heart seeing the plot twist of the story. Seeing that Bruno was sorry and wanted to help Shmuel but ended up in a twisted fate, it awfully does break my heart. I’d definitely say this is a must watch movie if you badly want to cry.”
Someone else said:”The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a masterpiece. Highly absorbing and moving film. It makes me cry every time I watch it. Absolutely love it. One of my all-time favourites. It is one of those movies that goes straight to the heart.”
However, since its release many have criticsed the film for its portrayal of the historic time and feel it may create a sympathy around perpetractors of the holocaust. One review claims: “The story is exactly what comes out when a daydreaming, ignorant filmmaker tries to invent a cliché Holocaust drama in his own Hollywood bubble.
What is worth noting is the impact the children’s novel and film have had on the education on the Holocaust for young people.
According to Holocaust educator Michael Grey, more than three-quarters of British schoolchildren (ages 13–14) engaged further with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas than The Diary of Anne Frank.
If you’re prepared to watch a real tear-jerker of a movie, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is available to watch now on Amazon Prime.