The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
- The original script for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was written over a decade before production finally began in 2008.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Before Asa Butterfield was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2008 British historical drama directed by Mark Herman, based on John Boyne's 2006 novel. The film follows eight-year-old Bruno, the son of a Nazi commandant who has been reassigned to oversee a concentration camp. Innocent and unaware of the Holocaust, Bruno befriends Shmuel, a Jewish boy the same age imprisoned behind the camp's electrified fence.
Their forbidden friendship develops through the barrier, with Bruno bringing food and playing games while remaining ignorant of the horror surrounding his new friend. The film's devastating power came from its presentation of the Holocaust through the eyes of a child too young to understand what he is seeing โ Bruno perceives the camp inmates in their striped uniforms as wearing "pyjamas" and playing a strange game. The film's final sequence was among the most harrowing endings in Holocaust cinema.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas earned $44 million worldwide on a $12 million budget.
