STACK #185 Mar 2020

FEATURE FILM

WhileTaikaWaititi can usually find a way of casting himself in his movies, he had no intention of playing Adolf Hitler when he wrote the script for Jojo Rabbit eight years ago. “This was one of the ones where I thought, ‘no way can I justify getting myself in this movie.’ Then I got distracted and went off and made three other movies: WhatWe Do in the Shadows , Wilderpeople and Thor . After that I came back to the script and Fox Searchlight got in touch and said that they loved it and wanted to make it, but they were only interested in making it if I play Hitler. So it was really their idea, and I thought they were crazy. And when I watch the movie, I still think they’re crazy,” he laughs.

Taika calls "ACTION!"

and leans on his own personal Hitler [Waititi] as a sounding board. A cuddly, energetic, pep-talking version of the Führer, he

era while identifying pointed parallels to today's fascist

I'm making a film that has a really simple message, which is 'just be nice to each other'

groupthink. Waititi, who has long had

a gift for infusing even his wildest comedies with real heart, guides this film from taboo-breaking scenes reminiscent of Monty Python or

becomes an unlikely father figure to the boy with an egregious blind spot. Growing up, Waititi found himself wanting a father figure in his life. “So I think it’s no different for a boy growing up in Nazi Germany without a father,” says the self-described Polynesian Jew whose own Hitler is so truly hilarious, even a nuanced expression elicits uproarious laughter. When asked if it’s a risky move making a movie about Hitler and the Nazis in today’s sensitive climate, Waititi concedes that while that could be the case, Jojo Rabbit is unlikely to offend anybody. “There’s nothing controversial about this film. Believe me, I’d love to have the label of ‘the bad boy of cinema’ or a rebel, but I’m not. I’m really polite and from New Zealand, and I’m making a film that has a really simple message, which is ‘just be nice to each other.’ “There are a lot of [comedic] elements in the film that were taken from actual events and stuff,” he adds, “like those robot costumes you see when

Mel Brooks into far more emotional territory – a singular and essential response to both history and our current moment. “In 1933 when Hitler got into power, little by little every single day or every week, there was one small change or one thing where people said, ‘that’s wrong’. But it wasn’t big enough to really get anyone up in arms and it wasn’t big enough until it was too late,” he says, addressing the learned hate which still exists in today’s political climate. “You think it will never happen again but that’s exactly what they said in 1933, ‘Nothing will be as bad as the First World War’. “That ignorance and the arrogance that allows us to forget is a big human flaw. So it’s important to keep telling these stories again and again. We have to keep remembering and keep finding new and inventive ways of telling the same story so children

• Jojo Rabbit is out on Mar 25

the Nazis are hunting for metal. They were taken from archival photos.” Nevertheless, the film still walks a precarious high wire, savaging the anti- Semitism of the Nazi

can listen and grow and move forward unified and with love in the future.”

D o n ' t M i s s !

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