How can a film told through a child’s eyes be appealing to a wide audience? These eyes provide a new perspective on horrific events of WWII. “The boy in the striped pyjamas”, directed by Mark Herman, effectively represents the key events, themes and messages, setting and characters as contained in the novel, of the same name, by John Boyne.
Herman has used editing techniques of key events to effectively deliver the plot of the book. The opening is a collection of scenes in a busy city street. Glimpses of Bruno, the young central character, joyfully running home with his friends are placed between images of what surrounds them. These include men in uniforms, Swastika flags and people being forcefully loaded on to trucks. As Bruno pretends to fly a plane he is completely unaware of these events. This editing clearly establishes that the film will be told from his point of view - that of an innocent ignorant child in German during WWII.
Furthermore, the use of camera angles develops the story and the relationship between Bruno, the son of the Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp and Shmuel, a young Jewish prisoner. At first they are separated by individual close up shots. While later we see them together on the scene through an eye level camera angle. These shots parallel their developing friendship. At all times the fence that physically separates them is prominently placed between them in each image. Their friendship, forbidden in these circumstances and time, is central to the story in both genres.
Good and evil is shown through the use of light and dark images to successfully portray the themes and messages of the book. The house in the city where Bruno first lives is filled with sunlight while the house he moves to near the concentration camp is dark and gloomy. This contrast shows that the presence of evil is close by. Another example of impending danger is when