The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

SS officer Ralf (David Thewlis) and his wife Elsa (Vera Farmiga) have a twelve-year-old daughter, Gretel (Amber Beattie), and an eight-year-old son, Bruno (Asa Butterfield). The well-to-do family must move to the "countryside" when the father is promoted to Obersturmbannführer. Unknown to Bruno, the new house is near a Nazi concentration camp, and Ralf is the new commandant. Bruno initially dislikes the new house as he always has to stay in the house or the garden. From his bedroom window, Bruno spots a barbed wire fence with people in "striped pyjamas" behind it. Though he thinks it is a farm, it is the camp with Jewish people in their camp clothing. Bruno is forbidden to go there, because according to Ralf "they're not really people"; it is agreed that at least they are a bit weird, as demonstrated by their clothing.

An elderly Jewish man named Pavel (David Hayman) is a servant in the family home; he is treated rudely by Ralf's adjutant, Obersturmführer Kotler (Rupert Friend). Formerly a doctor, Pavel mends Bruno's cuts when he falls off his home-made tire swing.

Bruno goes there anyway, secretly, and becomes friends with a Jewish boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), whom he meets at the fence and who is the same age. Shmuel tells Bruno that he is a Jew and that the Jewish people have been imprisoned here by soldiers, who took their clothes and gave them the striped camp clothing. Bruno is confused and starts having doubts about his father being a good person. Later, he is relieved after seeing a propaganda film about the camp (that is a parody of Theresienstadt). Bruno often returns to the fence. He brings Shmuel food and plays draughts (checkers) with him through the fence.

Ralf hires Herr Liszt (Jim Norton) to tutor Gretel and Bruno, although in reality he is brainwashing them with anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda. Gretel is very responsive to this and becomes an even more fanatical Nazi than she already was.

In the meantime, Elsa notices a strange odor in the air outside their house just as Lieutenant Kotler, an Aryan, walks past. Kotler, thinking Elsa knows what really goes on in the camp, says to her "They smell even worse when they burn". Elsa, who thought that the camp was a labor camp and not a death camp, is shocked and quarrels with Ralf about it, and ultimately breaks down.

Kotler is blamed by Ralf and Ralf's visiting father (who is also a firm Nazi) that he failed to report that his father emigrated to Switzerland some time ago, as opposed to contributing to the "national revival".

Frustrated, Kotler responds violently to Pavel's accidental overturning Kotler's wine glass in the course of serving supper to the family. Calling Pavel a cretin, he drags the man from the room into an adjacent room, from which the sounds of violence emanate. Through the partly-open door, all that can be seen is Kotler's boot as he kicks Pavel. During the beating, Elsa implores Ralf, saying only "Ralf", but Ralf continues to eat with apparent aplomb.

Bruno, in the next scene in his sister's room -- which is festooned with Nazi propaganda posters -- says "but Dad just sat there" to which Gretel replies "What do you expect him to do? The Jew deserved it". In a following scene Maria the maid is shown vigorously scrubbing a the floor in the room in which Pavel had been beaten. Pavel is never seen in the house again. Shmuel appears in the house, as a servant cleaning gold-rimmed drinking goblets. (Shmuel: "They needed someone with tiny fingers to clean all these.")

In his joy, Bruno gives him a cake to eat. The two friends have a brief dialog as Shmuel eats the cake ravenously, about whether their respective fathers are good men. Bruno asks his friend "Is it really horrible in the camp?"

The question is left unanswered as -- with cake crumbs still clinging to Shmuel's mouth -- Kotler unexpectedly enters and harshly scolds Shmuel for speaking with Bruno, menacingly asking Shmuel if he has been stealing food. Shmuel tells the officer that Bruno is his friend and that he gave him the cake.

Kotler turns to Bruno, asking quietly "Little man, do you know this Jew?" When Bruno hesitates to answer, Kotler repeats the question nearly screaming it in Bruno's face. Frightened, Bruno betrays his friend by denying it: "I just walked in and he was helping himself, I've never seen him before in my life. The soldier tells Shmuel to finish cleaning the glasses, and that on his return the two would "have a little chat about what happens to rats who steal".

Shmuel is not seen in the house anymore, and at first not at the fence either. Finally, Shmuel is at the fence again, with an injured right eye. A stricken and ashamed Bruno apologizes. Shmuel soon forgives Bruno and they become friends again. Kotler is later sent to the front for not advising his superiors of his father's opposition to the Nazi regime.

Elsa decides to move away with the children; Ralf agrees, and tells Bruno that Elsa does not feel that the area is a good place for children to grow up. Bruno does not want to leave anymore, because of his friend Shmuel.

Shmuel tells Bruno that his father is missing. Bruno gives him the bad news that he will be moving away for good the next day after lunch. Wanting to make up for letting Shmuel down and unaware that his father has likely been murdered, Bruno agrees to help Shmuel to find his father, and returns the next day with a shovel to dig a hole under the fence to get into the camp, while Shmuel will bring an extra set of camp clothing; Shmuel's suggestion that he could leave the camp through the hole is rejected by Bruno, who focuses on the target of finding the father.

Bruno changes his clothes, crawls carefully under the fence, and enters the camp with Shmuel. As he discovers the true nature of the camp, he starts to regret his offer of help to Shmuel, and wants to return home, but, determined not to go back on his promise, continues to search for Shmuel's father. However, after a while of looking without success, the two boys get bundled into a group of Jews, and led towards the gas chambers, although neither of them are aware of this or where they are going.

Meanwhile, Elsa notices that Bruno is missing, and then informs Ralf, who, is in a meeting discussing increasing the capacity of the Gas Chambers, they start searching for Bruno.

At the camp, the soldiers lead the Jewish men into a room, where they order them to take their clothes off. Neither of the boys are sure why they are told to do this. As they enter the chamber a Jewish man reassures everyone that it is just a shower. After all men are inside, he closes the door and the window.

Ralf and his soldiers come across the camp, and discover Bruno's clothing, and the hole under the fence. He realizes that Bruno is inside and rushes to save his son.

Inside the Gas Chamber, Bruno and Shmuel, still unaware of what is about to happen, take each other's hands, before the room is suddenly thrown into darkness. Seen from below, backlit and in near-silhouette, a soldier wearing a gas mask pours granules from a small canister down into the chamber.

From outside the chamber, through the heavy metal door, a frantic pounding is heard from within.

Ralf races through the Camp, and, noticing an empty hut, it suddenly dawns on him what is happening to his son but he is too late to save him. There is silence from behind the death-chamber door.

Elsa and Gretel realize that Bruno is dead. Devastated, his mother and sister both weep at their loss.