The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - O Rapaz de Pijama às Riscas -DVD - Film review

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas é a versão cinematográfica do best-seller do autor irlandês John Boyne de 2006. No país de origem o título tem a ortografia do Inglês britânico (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas), pelo que não é de estranhar encontrar as duas versões.

A intensidade com que o autor afirma ter escrito a obra (o esboço foi feito em dois dias) é equivalente ao efeito avassalador que o filme tem no espectador. Poderíamos escrever aqui imenso sobre esta obra, mas preferimos dar a palavra a alguns alunos cujas críticas ao filme passamos a apresentar. É mais um "must see" disponível na BECRE e que poderá ser utilizado em várias disciplinas. Os trabalhos aqui reproduzidos foram elaborados no âmbito da disciplina de Inglês do 12º ano, mas The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas é também uma excelente ferramenta para, por exemplo, aulas de História.

Cristina Oliveira

"The boy in the striped pyjamas" is a film based on the novel of John Boyle which has the same name.
This film shows a bit of the horror of the World War II Holocaust and one of its concentration camps, Auschwitz. Behind this horror lays also a friendship between two naïve and innocent boys who were supposed to be rivals.

I must say that it’s in fact a very strong film that makes it impossible for you not to cry. Using children to make us bond with the characters is a smart strategy as the shock has a bigger impact becoming almost overwhelming. I think this persuasive message is also for us to understand what was going on back on that time, because some of us think we know but we have no idea about what was truly the genocide inside the “work camps”.
The final silence spoke volumes. I will never forget that image of the closed door of the supposed shower hut which outside had all those hanging striped pajamas of the Jews. In spite of surely being trapped in negative emotions, I felt stunned because of its essence and undeniable facts that made history one day.

Carina Correia

(aluna CCH - Línguas e Humanidades)

The movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” is a strong and emotional motion picture that tells the story about a two boy´s friendship, which goes against Germany´s ideology, in time of Nazism. 
The movie starts when Bruno, a young German boy and son of a Nazi Commandant, moves to a new house, with his family, next to a concentration camp, due to his father´s work. At first, he was upset for leaving his friends and moving to a new place where he knew nothing and no one. Everything changed when he met Shmuel, a Jewish boy, who was being kept in a concentration camp, which Bruno had no knowledge about.
They couldn´t be friends because of their different races. However, Bruno was loyal to his friend, and after many meetings between them in the concentration camp (they were separated by a barbed wire fence and some divergences, Bruno decides to enter into the camp to help Shmuel find his father, who according to him, was lost. Little did they know that, actually his father had been murdered in a gas chamber, alongside other men, by the Nazis.
This movie is tremendously strong and gives us something to think about. Due to the ignorant ideas and prejudices held in Germany, by the time of World War II, thousands of innocent lives were wasted in vain. In the movie, both the boys have a destiny that shouldn´t have been theirs, because they were blameless and had nothing to do with what happened. They were pawns in the hands of Nazis…

I advise anyone, mostly those who live their lives judging people by their race, to watch this. This motion picture is stunning and impressive. I admit that this is one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life and I assure you ther will be no regrets if you watch it.

Filipa Maia 

(aluna CCH - Línguas e Humanidades)