In Praise of a Deeply Disturbing Film.

I watched a film last night called The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I found it vaguely unsatisfying at the time, but today I saw it differently. It was the sort of film which stayed with me and insinuated its meaning ever more strongly as the day wore on.

It tells the story of a German army officer and his family during World War II. The father is promoted and assigned to be commandant of a concentration camp, a posting which requires him and his family to move their residence to a fine house just beyond the perimeter fence where they live in luxury.

And then we watch the family gradually disintegrate as the ill-informed mother and the totally innocent children discover the true nature of the father’s position. And the father strikes an ironically heroic pose as he maintains his commitment to the cause while his personal life is breaking up. David Thewliss plays the tortured but resolute father brilliantly. In fact, every actor in the film is superb. Meanwhile, the horror of the Holocaust is subtly understated and is all the stronger for so being.

And I saw a deeper message contained within the surface plot – that the Holocaust is not so much an indictment of the German people, but of the tendency in humanity as a whole to allow itself to be driven deep beyond the bounds of reason and decency by strong and skilful propaganda. It’s a lesson which still seems to be lost on many people today, even in countries which see themselves as developed, sophisticated and civilised.

As for the ending, it would be too much of a spoiler to tell. Let’s just say that it’s deeply ironic and quite shocking. And this is far too serious a post for this late at night, but it’s going up anyway.