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THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS
Mark Herman
2008
FULL CAST
PLOT OVERVIEW
Elsa ( Mother )
Maria ( Housekeeper )
An eight-year-old German boy and a Jewish concentration camp prisoner in World War II-era Germany. The innocent son of a high-ranking Nazi commandant, Bruno has been largely shielded from the harsh realities of the war. When Bruno discovers that his father has been promoted and that their family will be moving from Berlin into the countryside, he doesn't take the news well. Increasingly bored in his sprawling yet dreary country, forbidden by his mother from exploring the backyard, young Bruno searches for something to do while his older sister plays with dolls and vies for the attention of Lieutenant Kotler. One day, bored and gazing out his bedroom window, Bruno spies what first appears to be a nearby farm; his parents refuse to discuss it, and all of the inhabitants there are curiously clad in striped pajamas. But while Bruno's mother believes the "farm" to be an internment camp, her husband has sworn under oath never to reveal that it is in fact an extermination camp.
Eventually defying his mother's rules and venturing out beyond the backyard, Bruno arrives at a barbed wire fence to find a young boy just his age emptying rubble from a wheel barrel. His name is Shmuel, and before long the two young boys become fast friends. But the closer these two boys grow, the more Bruno becomes awakened to the horrors unfolding all around them. His mother is catching on quickly as well, a fact that causes great tension in her marriage to Bruno's father.
When Bruno's father announces that the young boy and his mother will be going to live with their aunt in Heidelberg, Bruno grabs a shovel and makes his way to the camp, setting into motion a tragic and devastating sequence of events.
SCENE DECONSTRUCTION
FILM CONVEYS CULTURAL EXPERIENCES
The understanding of historical, social and political context’s in the era of which the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is set, will help shape our understanding and the various aspects of cultural experiences in film that are conveyed and experienced within the visual representations.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas explores social, historical, cultural and political contexts in conjunction with personal context. This will allow us to relate to the film more greatly and explore the groups, individuals and/or places.
Essentially, then, by the time Bruno meets shmuel, a polish jew, Bruno remains innocent and unaware of the views shmuel is as a friend but is inherent to the human condition.
Through understanding the person context and understanding the historical context of the situation in the current time period, it allows us to reflect on how the children and people experience a sense of cultural difference by an image with such negative connotations.
The people ‘beyond the fence’ have a connection with other people surrounding.
The undermining of knowledge and skill within the film gives an aspect that lines may divide us but hope will unite us, prevented from their friendships from one another. The various aspects associated within how film conveys cultural experiences in the movie are through relationships, connections, techniques and understanding.
It allows us to analyse the meaning and purpose of how the director has conveyed both views beyond the fence and the aspect of a person’s life.
IMAGES IN THE ABOVE BOX RELATE TO THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION : SCENE ( BRUNO MEETS SCHMUEL )
In The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas the director Mark Herman uses many symbols, throughout the scene when Bruno meets Shmuel, the fence between the two is a literal boundary, but it serves a figurative purpose.
It represents the imaginary barrier between the two different worlds that the two boys belonged too. It was the crossing point from a life of privilege to a life of torment and confinement. The fact that a simple object such as a fence could separate two completely different lives displays irony. Although it guided them towards friendship it still displayed ignorance and innocence.
The symbolism throughout this scene displayed the characteristics between both characters and the theme being portrayed, The dull colours of the stripped clothing represents a sad and tormented life being against the grass and dirt, it can be identified by the different lives both characters displated.
Its effectiveness as representing cultural experience is shown by the way Bruno meets and greets himself with Shmuel despite the background history of both cultures. In this case by the director’s knowledge and understanding in connecting the two, that many actions and words have multiple meanings.