The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

One little German boy finds out the hard way why his next-door neighbors are all wearing striped pajamas.

By: Jenni Miller

11/05/2008 04:32 pm

Courtesy of Miramax

Starring: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Jim Norton, Sheila Nancock, Richard Johnson, Asa Butterfield
Directed by: Mark Herman
(Miramax, November 7th, 2008 limited)

Based on the novel by John Boyne, this tearjerking WII film is about the friendship between Bruno, a Nazi commandant's son, and a young boy who lives in the concentration camp run by Bruno's father. When they move to the country because of Bruno's father's recent promotion, Bruno thinks they live next to a farm; his mother, played by the luminous Vera Farmiga, doesn't realize that the camp next door is part of Hitler's horrible plan to exterminate, not just inter, the Jews. (Because internment camps are okay?) Bruno's father is played by David Thewlis, who, besides his roles in the Harry Potter movies, won the 1993 Best Actor award in Cannes for his role in Mike Leigh's Naked.