Lush scenes of the countryside fill the screen with an undertone of poignant grace and bitter sadness. Director Mark Herman did John Boyne great justice with the film adaptation of the author’s novel “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” Showing the struggle between humanity and duty during World War II, the film shows the perspective of the war from two eight-year-old boys, one a Nazi commander’s son and the other a Jewish boy imprisoned in a concentration camp. Bruno, played beautifully by youngster Asa Butterfield, is uprooted from his privileged and sheltered existence in Berlin when his father is promoted to the countryside. Lonely and isolated from other boys his age, he discovers what he thinks is a farm, which in actuality is a concentration camp. Sneaking off one day to explore, Bruno makes way to the camp where he befriends a Jewish boy his age, Schmuel (Jack Scanlon). While all performances were great, the two boys were the jewels of this film. For such a young actor, Butterfield skillfully expresses the difficult emotions of confusion, guilt and longing. Through his performance, the audience is able to see his childlike innocence slowly ebbing away with the horrors of war, while Scanlon conveys desolation living inside the concentration camp. Through their unlikely friendship, audiences see the beauty and horror that is human nature.