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Vera Farmiga’s Performance in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

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Vera Farmiga’s Performance in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Vera Farmiga’s Performance in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

In the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Vera Farmiga takes on the role of Elsa, being Bruno and Gretel’s mother, and Ralph’s wife. She acts oblivious towards Bruno when it comes to the actualities of their surrounding, yet resents Ralph because she knows the truth. The movie takes place during World War II in Germany when women were treated a lot different than in today’s society. She plays, on one side of the spectrum, as a worried mother trying to protect her children from the outside world. In contrast, she plays a wife conflicted with the harsh realities of her husband’s job and her feelings on war. Vera Farmiga plays a strong, uplifting role as Elsa in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. As a mother, Vera tries to keep Bruno in the dark when it comes to war, but she ridicules her husband because of it. To keep Bruno’s innocence, she resists from telling Bruno what kind of soldier his father actually is. She tells Bruno as little as possible in order to prevent him from knowing the truth about the “farmers” that live within their midst, and at times remains silent to Bruno’s construed ideas of who the “farmers” actually are. Elsa is unaware of how in tune to his surroundings Bruno is, and plays it off like she knows nothing in order to keep him safe. On the other hand, she doesn’t keep it from her husband that she knows what he’s really doing in his line of work. She resents him for moving them so close to a concentration camp, and is upset that the “farmers” are in the same house as them. As a wife, Vera is also conflicted that Ralph had turned a fellow soldier in for not turning his father in for fleeing the country. This bothers her when the crime is just the same for Ralph not having turned his own mother in due to non loyalties against the country. Elsa had to be oblivious and knowing when each was appropriate, and Vera Farmiga did a great job at portraying that. Vera Farmiga plays a

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