Cinematically, the movie is also outstanding. Whether it's the first shot Bruno gets of the concentration camp, or the image we get of all of his sister's dolls piled in the cellar haphazardly like dead bodies, the film takes normal images and makes them shocking. Even though I knew it was coming, I still jumped a bit, shocked, as the rock leaves Bruno's hand, strikes the electrified fence and sizzles.

Still, it's the movie's dialogue and discussion that provides it with the weight that makes it stick with you long after you've finished watching it. Rupert Friend's Lt. Kotler is one of the more haunting characters, because he can't easily be painted in "black" (evil, bad) or "white" (good, or at least naïve). His father has obviously fled the country because of his disagreements with the government's aggressive, inhumane policies. And in his father's decision, Kotler's "chink in the armor" surfaces: he knows, as the son of an educated man, that his life is more than slightly off-kilter. To hide his own guilt, he is part-soldier and part-monster, mashed into one man's role that seems a road paralleled to Ralf's.

Of course, in the movie's turning point, even our white knight, our innocent lamb, proves too weak to fight the system, and succumbs to the terror that surrounds him, as James Horner's eerie soundtrack strikes its crescendo. He's too scared by the consequences, and his act, his Judas (or more accurately, Peter) moment of betrayal is disturbing in its implied repercussions. But this is about hope, and learning from our past mistakes, and in the end, you have to be moved by the promise that some will learn, even while others fall aside. This is the story of a friendship like David and Jonathan, where even suffering and death can't break a true bond.

And the end? Well, the end will stun you, move you, even reduce you to tears. But the threat of humankind's own ignorance and moral tolerance will haunt you for hours, even days, after the movie's credits roll. Will you end the cycle of intolerance, of moral decay, and heartless cruelty in your life, or will you buy into the lies that others sell you, and continue the downward cycle? We're not told whether the cycle is broken or not, but The Boy in the Striped Pajamas proves that some things are worth fighting for, one tiny footstep at a time

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