Review of the film "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas".

The action takes place in Berlin, in Nazi Germany in the time of the Holocaust. Bruno,9-year-old boy,  his father, his mother Elsa, and his 12-year-old sister Gretel relocate. Bruno hates his new home as there is nobody to play with and very little to explore. 
Bruno one day sneaks off beyond the back garden. He arrives at an electric, barbed wire fence surrounding a camp and sees a boy his own age named Shmuel, who lives inside and who asks for food. During their conversation, Bruno is thinking that the striped uniforms that Shmuel, and the other prisoners all wear are "pajamas". Bruno starts meeting Shmuel regularly, sneaking him food and playing board games with him. Bruno eventually learns that Shmuel is a Jew and that he was brought to the camp along with his father.

One day, Elsa (Bruno's mother) discovers that the source of the black smoke coming from the camp's chimneys is the burning corpses of Jews. Elsa confronts and argues with Ralf and is disgusted and heartbroken.
Later that day Bruno sees Shmuel has been ordered to the house to clean glasses because of his small fingers. Bruno offers him some cake, and they start talking. Kotler (the maid) appears, sees Shmuel chewing, and accuses him of stealing. Shmuel says Bruno offered him the cake, but fearful of Kotler, Bruno denies this. Kotler orders Shmuel to finish cleaning the glasses and says they will then have a "little chat about what happens to rats who steal". Bruno goes to his room distraught and decides to apologize to Shmuel, but Shmuel has gone. Every day Bruno returns to the same spot by the camp but does not see Shmuel. Shmuel reappears behind the fence, sporting a black eye. Despite Bruno's betrayal, Shmuel forgives him and renews his friendship.

Shmuel has problems of his own; his father has gone missing after those with whom he participated in a march did not return to the camp. Bruno decides to help Shmuel find his father. The next day Bruno, arrives back at the camp, takes a striped prisoners' outfit and a cap to cover his unshaven hair, and digs under the fence to join Shmuel in a search for Shmuel's father. 
Bruno soon discovers the true nature of the camp after seeing many sick and weak-looking Jews. While searching the boys are taken on a march with other inmates.

 At the house, Bruno being gone is noticed. After Gretel and Elsa discover the open window Bruno went through and the remains of a sandwich Bruno was taking for Shmuel, Elsa bursts into Ralf's meeting to alert him that Bruno is missing. Ralf and his men mount a search to find him. They find the boy's discarded clothing outside the fence and the hole he dug, and enter the camp, searching for him. In the mean time, Bruno, Shmuel and the other inmates on the march are stopped inside a changing room and are told to remove their clothes for a "shower". 

They are packed into a gas chamber, where Bruno and Shmuel hold each other's hands.

Ralf, still with his men, arrives at an empty dormitory, signalling to him that a gassing is taking place. Ralf cries out his son's name, and Elsa and Gretel fall to their knees, after discovering Bruno's discarded clothes outside the gate. 

The film ends by showing the closed door of the now-silent gas chamber and the prisoners' discarded clothing outside it indicating that the prisoners, Shmuel and Bruno are dead.