The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is not a great film at the
level of art (or cinema), but a great film at the level of its concept.
That concept concerns a question of evil: Is it possible for a child to
live in a world that is entirely rooted in evil? Set in Nazi Germany,
adapted from a “young adult” novel, directed by a Brit (Mark Herman),
and performed in English by English actors (the most notable of which
is David Thewlis—the star of the ’90s classic Naked),
Pajamas is about an 8-year-old German boy who one day discovers
a concentration camp at the back of his big house. But the German boy
doesn’t know that it’s a concentration camp—he thinks it’s a
farm. The German boy doesn’t know why the people in this funny farm are
so sad. The German boy doesn’t know why the nice Jewish boy he meets
and befriends there has to wear striped pajamas all of the time. The
German boy has no idea that the funny farm with the funny people is run
by his secretive father, an SS commandant. The lonely German boy only
wants a friend to play with, and the only boy of his age just happens
to live in this funny farm with a barbed-wire fence.

The story is a fairy tale that dissolves into a nightmare. The
nightmare begins when the boy realizes that evil does not only exist in
the world but lives in his house, eats with him at the dinner table,
and sleeps with his mother. The film ends with an answer to the
question: Can a child live in a world that’s entirely rooted in
evil? recommended

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

3 replies on “On Screen”

  1. Obviously, a child can live in a world that’s entirely rooted in evil. Sometimes I wonder if you grab your first thought of a movie—or anything, really—and hold it without looking for anything else. “Can a child live in a world that’s entirely rooted in evil?” sounds as dumb as “can a child live getting caught up in a rush to a gas chamber?” Also, the first sentence of this review is retarded. Odd as it may seem, your reviews are more enjoyable when you spend more time talking to yourself about how deep you are than talking about the movie.

  3. As for me, I think that both Charles and the Boy in the Striped Pajamas are quite charming. I also much prefer “Pajamas” to the lazier “PJs,” so double points there.

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