After years of acting on the cult film spectrum, director Taika Waititi reigned over Hollywood when he released “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017), a sequel that reinvented one of Marvel’s most tiring franchises. The logical step for New Zealanders would be to ride the wave of fame and take on some billionaire blockbuster.
But Waititi decided to take an unusual path. He uncovered “Jojo Rabbit”, a satire set in World War II about a German boy who fantasizes about Nazi doctrine and imagines Adolf Hitler as his hero and best friend –until his ideology crumbles when he finds a Jewish girl hiding in his home.
The story is based on the book by Christine Leunens, suggested to the filmmaker by his own mother. “I learned that I must listen to my mother more,” jokes the funny and witty Waititi.
“At the time, I was reading about the Bosnian War, something I didn’t care about when it happened because I was an uninformed teenager and everything seemed distant. But I saw reports of children witnessing atrocities and wondered what it would be like to grow up in World War II. ”
Despite the dramatic tone of the literary work, the New Zealander made an adaptation with the comic elements common to his filmography. The main one is the buffoon Hitler (played by Waititi himself), who only is seen by Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis). “I never intended to play that role,” the filmmaker and actor tells me.
The problem is that Fox Searchlight would only finance the film on the condition that the director taking the role of the most famous genocide in history. “Look at me, I’m not on any list of Aryan actors. I thought they were going out of business and trying to destroy the company,” jokes Waititi, son of a Maori and grandson of a Jew.
“The perfect word to describe the feeling of playing Hitler is shame”, he adds, who, during filming, made a point of wearing a cap and removing his fake mustache whenever he was behind the camera. “I was embarrassed all the time, to dress that way and look that way. I needed to remind myself that I was not acting like the real Hitler.”
The disgust was so unbearable that Waititi did not even try to research about the Nazi leader. “He doesn’t deserve an authentic representation. I wouldn’t waste my time studying that guy and his nuances, because he doesn’t deserve it ”, the filmmaker explains. “The only thing I did was put on the mustache and I imagined it as if he was ten years old because it is the fruit of the mind of a child of that age. The role became more bearable that way.”
The movie gained traction with the Oscar season. It was nominated in six categories, including best film, adapted screenplay and supporting actress for Scarlett Johansson, who plays Jojo’s mother, a German woman contrary to the government of her country, but clever enough to fight Nazism on the sly –hiding a Jewish woman (Thomasin McKenzie) in her home.
The choice of satirical tone –and even slapstick at certain times– to portray Nazis in the last year of World War II was not unscathed. In Germany, the film faced resistance from critics, who do not accept that the subject is treated as a comedy.
In the United States, “The New Yorker” said that the film’s proposal “backfires”, while “Digital Spy” critic Gabriella Geisinger writes that, as a granddaughter of Jews, she felt “sick” in the first minutes of the movie.
The concern is justified. Although the message of love and inclusion of “Jojo Rabbit” is very clear to anyone and has already been used by comedians like Charles Chaplin (“The Great Dictator”) and Mel Brooks (“The Producers”), reports of the exaltation of nazism, xenophobia and racial prejudice pop up every week in different countries of the world –including Brazil. Taika Waititi is not unaware of this.
“It’s sad to have to make this film to remember how insane Hitler was,” the director says. “80 years have passed since the beginning of World War II and we have allowed fascists and racists to say whatever they want and organize marches. I believe it is a good time for the film to exist. We need to remember all the time that we can’t let this shit happen again.”
