The MovieSite — The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

A timeless story of innocence lost and humanity found.

Set during World War II, a young German boy and his family move to the 'country', where his father has been appointed commandant at a concentration camp. Blissfully unaware of the horrors of war and concentration camps, the little boy manages to make friends with one of the inmates, a Jewish boy of the same age. However, as time goes by and things get worse for the Nazis, it's only a matter of time before tragedy strikes.

95 minutes, Mature Accompaniment under 13 (Prejudice)
Drama, War, On the art circuit

Credits

Cast

Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Amber Beattie, Jack Scanlon, David Hayman, Rupert Friend

Director

Mark Herman

Screenplay

Mark Herman, from the novel by John Boyne

Music

James Horner

Cinematography

Benoît Delhomme

Editing

Michael ellis

Sound formats

Dolby Digital, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, DTS

Soundtrack

Not available

Made in

2008

Produced by

BBC Films, Heyday Films, Miramax Films

SA Distributor

Ster-Kinekor

FPB Report (SA)
Genre	Drama
Language	None
Nudity	None
Sex	None
Violence	Fairly strong psychologically, strongly implied violece
Prejudice	Strong racial prejudice, hatred and negative stereotyping of Jews in historical context
Blasphemy	None
Drug abuse	None
Comments	Warning: Strong racial prejudice and hatred, negative stereotypes of Jews, demeaning and dehumanising in historical context. Mature accompaniment to counter-balance psychological distress.
These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines.

Ratings

Scale (Max)

South African Media

Cape Argus/The StarDiane de Beer

Die BurgerLaetitia Pople

Cape TimesMichael Sragow

iAfrica.comRebekah Kendal

The CitizenDavid Jenkin

Sunday TimesBarry Ronge

International Media

Chicago Sunday TimesRoger Ebert

eye Weekly (Canada)Jason Anderson In his respectful adaptation, Little Voice director Mark Herman attempts to preserve the original’s intentionally naīve, storybook-like tone but the movie falls prey to many of the problems that mar screen portrayals of the Holocaust.

ReelViews (USA)James Berardinelli t is a well-made, serious effort, but the pervasive sense of oversimplification and contrivance left me unpersuaded that this is more than a minor take on a major historical event.

Metacritic.com28 critics

RottenTomatoes.com105 critics

RottenTomatoes.comTomatometer A touching and haunting family film that deals with the Holocaust in an arresting and unusual manner, and packs a brutal final punch of a twist.

Internet (IMDB)1672 Netizens Amazing

Average .. 57%

Trailer

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