Childish innocence provides stark contrast to the darkest depravities of Nazism in this affecting adaptation of John Boyne's bestselling novel. The film follows Bruno (Asa Butterfield), an eight-year-old boy living in Berlin, who is uprooted with his family to the countryside when his Nazi officer father (David Thewlis) is promoted. Bruno mistakes the nearby concentration camp for a farm and, through the barbed wire, befriends another little boy (Jack Scanlon) wearing striped pyjamas. The crushing inevitability of what the children don't know is heartbreaking, their naivety boldly underlining the unfathomable nature of the crimes that surround them. However, writer/director Mark Herman (Little Voice, Brassed Off) is less successful at addressing why Thewlis's character is so adamant in his beliefs. For both grown-ups and children, it's a morality tale that prompts more questions than answers. That's fine, as long as audiences are open to having this conversation.

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.