The boy across the fence
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells
and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows”
– John Betjeman
And so begins the film. With these lines. But, how does the dark hour of reason grow upon an eight year old boy? How much is he influenced by it? And, with what consequence? Now that I have watched the film, I wonder how the director or whoever else stumbled upon John’s written words. Because its precisely this that came to my mind when the film ended. And where the answers lay. It will do that to all the adults watching the film I think. And it will not be pleasant. Yet at the same time, not all is lost. The eight year old is afterall, just that. His mind and his ability of reasoning too is still formative and his own. Atleast for now. So there is hope. Hope, as I see it now, and eventually by the influential too but at what cost will this come? And what each one will make of it? Especially if it comes after a period of devastating sorrow? There can be no one collective end here though. It can just one forward or can backtrack the same onto the same track, may be with more brutality.
Where the story comes from is what the film gives me. What it finally led to is my taking. It will be for anyone who watched this. But to each his own.
Bruno is the eight-year-old boy of this story. Lives in Berlin with his mother, father and twelve-year-old sister. A palatial home and an equally opulent lifestyle, Bruno has just nothing more do to but live his life to the fullest just as an kid his age who has everything would do. We are introduced to Bruno as he is running across streets with arms wide apart flying like birds. But on ground. As he and his friends pass buildings and people what we see are huge flags with the Swastika sign draped down. We see people well dressed. We see uniformed officers – some strolling with an alert gait; others taking people in trucks. We see some people, who seem to be at the lower strata, being pushed and herded into these trucks.
We know the time. Bruno doesn’t. It doesn’t affect him, so how could he possibly be? Enter home and preparations for a party on in full swing. Why mum, he asks. Father’s got a promotion dear, she says with a kiss on his forehead. Father, as we then later see, has risen in rank within the SS fold. Hence the celebration. Nothing is overly conveyed to the viewer but who doesn’t know about history? Even snippets of this horrifying chapter of the past thats been much detailed and documented again and again would suffice.
Father has news. The family has to move to another place. The countryside. New job brings in newer responsibilities. Bruno sulks. Mum assures him that there will be new friends to play with there. But the first glimpse of the white, isolated building jutting out in the middle of the woods and the feeling of something’s different creeps in. For Bruno and mum. Mum’s eyes wide with hesitancy and her broken mutter ‘Well children, here is your new home’. Father, the new commander of the SS camp, just accepts it as his mind is more occupied with the work that has to be dealt with.
As they settle in into their new life, Bruno realizes that the only one to play with him is himself. The mother’s first contact with a Jew is in the form of the kitchen help – an old, wobbling Jew in stripes. Her reaction is just to be watched for. Her palish ash eyes further whiten and open up that only make him feel just like an object to be dispensed with immediately. When Bruno questions his strangeness of manner and dressing, it slowly dawns on the mother that this is just the beginning. When more and more of the atrocities on the Jews in the camp further beyond the home become known to her, the more the mother gets tormented. Her former discomfort wasn’t exactly what I thought it was about.
Vera Farmiga plays the mother. I dont think anyone else could be so. Maybe Cate Blanchett but no. She’d be too strong for this character. Vera’s assets are her eyes and she uses them depict the angst and turmoil superbly. Her delicate but quivering lips unable to say much when she looks at the Jew, when she faces up her husband, when she knows her kids are gradually being inducted in this world of Nazis v/s Jews through interactions with the driver-cum-nazi lieutenant Kotler and the pro-aryan tutor, her world is all set to collapse over her. Just a mention for Kotler here. Played by Rupert Friend, he is the personification of all that Hitler’s ideals stands for. Watch him bark at the old Jew, yell commands with his jaw tightened and ice-cold demanor its just the kind of bestiality that will terrify all. Even though this is a very small role, his few scenes in Bruno’s presence was well enough for the kid to understand that he an his people were very different than the Jews. And that that they weren’t very kind towards them. Its the first taste of the real world. One where his father is also considered to be among Kotler’s ilk. Bruno has only one person whom he can talk to. In his language – that of a kid’s. One of his age. He is Shmuel.
Forbidden to go past the back door of the house, Bruno one day sneaks past and runs across the storeroom beyond which leads to the woods. Free at last, he is one among the trees. More trees and then suddenly a clearing, a brook, and a fence further up there. He moves up. Sees a figure sitting across the wires. Shmuel he is. Soon they begin talking and meet on off. The dialogues are simple yet when I think of it now not easy to pen. Its Bruno’s first acquaintence with a Jew, a kid that too in a camp, and the manner in which he gets to know him is superbly written. Why are you in pyjamas? What is that number? Any friends? And Shmuel – Do you have food on you? Friends hmm…but We fight. We work. Bruno – play. Shmuel – No, its dangerous. Bruno doesn’t understand and neither does Shmuel, completely. But in that little mind of theirs they do their best. Sitting across the barb-wired fence and talking. At home, Bruno’s is also being brainwashed with ideas about Nazism, Hitler and Jews being evil. He tries to convince himself of the opposite but at times is not able to hold on to it. Especially in the presence of Kotler. And his father. Which once leads to an episode making Shmuel the victim. Its terrible to watch this. Yet, Bruno goes back to Shmuel. Asking forgiveness and deciding to make up for it. Shmuel smiles and accepts. Its quite wrenching to watch this.
The mother by now is going silently hysterical – the father committing the crimes, the daughter getting warped in the fervour of Nazism, the son losing his innocence. She gives an ultimatum and the father with no way out decides for it too. The family excepting the father will move out from this place. Bruno for once doesn’t want to, but its been decided. And so he goes on to tell Shmuel. But yet remembers his promise.
Jack Scanlon plays Shmuel. Blond, bald, toothless, his smile, his slouch, his stumbling gait, just made me want to reach out to him and pull him out of the camp. Instead I could just watch him. Clean, hide, smile, and live in hope.
Asa Butterfield is Bruno. He is one who could be a brat, one who could gets swayed by elderly influences and not care a damn then. But Bruno borders on this and his own thinking very well. Asa portrays this predicament superbly. For an eight-year old its not a simple handover.
Its not easy to direct kids on screen and with such a subject both Asa and Jack seem to have a detailed understanding of not knowing much about their respective predicaments. The director just goes along. The shots too involving the kids are observatory. The kids are in control and I just watch their uneven friendship unravel. Right upto to the promise and beyond. Im taken along and as much as I want to think positive, its a very convenient thought. It has to break one down.
There is this thought that practically its not possible for the two kids to talk without any guard finding them out, sooner or later. But then as the story goes along this just fizzles out.
The background music by James Horner is restrained but plays along with the plot. The father, David Thewlis, is ok. Never does he seem affected much by the happenings right upto to the end. It baffled me no end. Supporting cast is adequate. But its the smooth adaptation of the eponymous novel by John Boyne that is a winner. Do watch it. It isn’t easy. But that’s what makes it what it is.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Director: Mark Herman
Writing credits:
Based on John Boyne’s novel
Mark Herman: Screenplay
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks Arthi – I will definitely catch this one.
We loathe the awful tragedy like the holocaust. But awful it is/was ,it has triggered wonderful voices in poems and essays and films. Each carrying a solemnly different view. The view of a child is one of the less seen – Thanks for the recco and a wonderful writeup. Keep it coming..
I was surprised with the way this film was handled, Arthi.
It really strips u from being an adult, and transforms u into a child.
Then once it’s got u where it wants u, ‘POW’ – Hits u like a ton of bricks!
It’s definitely one of those films which stay with u long after it’s ended.
Thanks Jaiganesh and rightly said.
Steve, it really made me feel guilty on one level, as an adult. It doesnt stop with the Holocaust, I feel..hence so…
good review….
its one of those films where after its cracking ending i get up and start walking around my room, thinking about the emotional overflow it caused me..