<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $44.1 million </Td> </Tr> <P> The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (released as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in the United States) is a 2008 British American historical drama film set in World War II, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by John Boyne . Directed by Mark Herman, produced by BBC Films and Heyday Films, and distributed by Miramax, the film stars Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Asa Butterfield, and Jack Scanlon . It was released on 12 September 2008 in the United Kingdom . </P> <P> The Holocaust drama relates the horror of a World War II Nazi extermination camp through the eyes of two 8 - year - old boys; Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the son of the camp's Nazi commandant, and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a Jewish inmate . The film was criticised for what some felt is a distorted view of the Auschwitz experience . </P> <P> The film opens with the quote, "Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows," by John Betjeman . A young boy named Bruno lives with his family in Berlin, in Nazi Germany during World War II . He learns that his father Ralf has been promoted, due to which their family, including Bruno's mother Elsa and sister Gretel, relocate to the "countryside" (occupied Poland). Bruno hates his new home as there is no one to play with and very little to explore . After commenting that he has spotted people working on what he thinks is a farm in the distance (but, unbeknownst to the innocent Bruno, is actually a concentration camp), he is also forbidden from playing in the back garden . </P>

Main character in the boy in the striped pajamas
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