"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" brings us the Holocaust through the first-hand observations of an 8-year-old German boy. Little Bruno (Asa Butterfield) doesn't fully comprehend what is going on. But because of what he sees and hears, he increasingly senses that it can't be good.

Bruno's soldier father (David Thewlis) is promoted to commandant of a concentration camp far from the Berlin where the boy has enjoyed the companionship of friends and the adoration of his extended family. Bereft of playmates in the remote countryside, Bruno goes exploring. He discovers the barbed-wire perimeter of what he has been told is a farm nearby. On the other side of the fence is a boy his own age named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon).

Shmuel is wearing the vertically striped prison garb that we know from black-and-white World War II-era photographs of concentration camp inmates. Because he has been told the place is a farm, Bruno thinks Shmuel and the other prisoners are wearing pajamas, hence the movie's title.

The boys become friends. Conveniently unobserved by guards — this part of the movie does require a suspension of disbelief — Bruno and Shmuel continue to meet and puzzle out each other's lives. Shmuel tells Bruno that he and the other inmates are in prison for one reason: They are Jews.

The boys eventually surmount the physical barrier that separates them. At that point the story rushes to the devastating conclusion that validates the sense of dread that has pervaded the film from the moment Bruno first crept out of the family compound.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is based on the 2006 book by John Boyne. The film is directed by Mark Herman from the screenplay by himself and Boyne. They tell the story straightforwardly and almost entirely from the viewpoint of the innocent child, thereby setting us up to be punched in the heart by what happens in the final few minutes.

The film is blessed by superb performances all around, most definitely including those of Butterfield and Scanlon. Thewlis beautifully captures the loyal soldier who can not only follow despicable orders but make himself believe in them. Vera Farmiga is the commandant's disillusioned and angry wife.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is recommended for middle-teens and older because it's educational as well as intensely moving. Liberal parents may allow younger kids to go as well; there's no sex and almost no on-screen violence. But they should be prepared to answer tough questions about the human propensity for evil.