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 "Jojo Rabbit," which Waititi wrote, directed and in which he
plays a ridiculous Hitler, combines dark, absurdist humor with a
serious plea for tolerance as an antidote to hate.
The movie opens in U.S. theaters on Friday after winning the top
award in September at the Toronto film festival, which has often
been the proving ground for Oscar glory.
It tells of a 10-year-old German boy (Jojo) toward the end of
World War Two who is a Nazi fanatic and whose imaginary friend
is Hitler. Filled with anti-Semitic ideas, Jocko's world is
turned upside down when he finds his mother has hidden a young
Jewish girl in the attic of their home.
"I was really taken by the idea of children witnessing grown-ups
doing terrible things," said Waititi, whose mother is Jewish and
whose father is Maori.
"We need to educate our kids about tolerance and continue to
remind ourselves that there's no place in this world for hate."
Waititi, whose work ranges from the New Zealand TV musical
parody "Flight of the Conchords" to superhero movie "Thor:
Ragnorak," said he wanted the film to overturn any notion that
stories about the Nazi era have had their day, especially given
the worldwide rise of white nationalism.
"It's really crazy that at the end of World War Two, if you were
a Nazi, you went to jail. Now it's like, if you're a Nazi, feel
free to go to the town square and have a rally," he said.
Movie critics have called "Jojo Rabbit" both bold and divisive,
despite a history of Hitler spoofs dating back to Charlie
Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" in 1940 and the 1967 Mel Brooks
film "The Producers."
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"I've always been prepared that for some people it's still too soon
to be mixing humor with this subject matter. There are one or two
people who won't see the film because they've had family members
who've gone through the camps. And that's totally fine."But it's so
obvious what this is. You'd have to be dumb to misconstrue the
message of this movie," Waititi said.
Waititi said a 2018 survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against Germany showed that 41% of Americans and 66%
of U.S. millennials questioned could not say what Auschwitz was.
"The fact that number is so high is staggering and shocking and
simply not good enough. We are forgetting. So no, we should not stop
having this conversation and making these films and talking about
it.
"If I have to make a film with an imaginary Hitler and a few jokes,
then so be it," he said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Tom Brown)
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