2019’s Jewish International Film Festival, held at Classic, Lido, Cameo and Ritz cinemas, has a strong documentary focus this year, telling stories of great Jewish creatives and innovators who have shaped our world and culture. To single out just a few, Sundance hit Ask Dr Ruth is a frank, warm portrait of revolutionary sex therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer, whereas Love, Antosha looks at the tragically short life and work of young actor Anton Yelchin.
Amongst other docos covering jazz record labels, Leonard Cohen, and the rise and fall of a swimwear empire, the festival includes one highly anticipated movie that’s a bit less firmly rooted in history: Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, an ‘anti-hate satire’ which premiered at Toronto only a month ago. Chosen as the festival’s closing night film, Jojo Rabbit looks to be a complicated melange of juvenile comedy and coming-of-age drama, all set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany. And cinemagoers in Melbourne and Sydney can check it out a full month before the film’s official release in December!
Described as an ‘anti-hate satire’, the film follows a lonely Nazi Youth brat whose world is turned upside down when he discovers that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish refugee (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home’s attic. The thing is, Jojo is a devoted little German soldier – his imaginary friend is a goofy, Bugs Bunny-esque version of Adolf Hitler (Waititi again) – and it’ll take a complete reversal of his blind patriotism for him to see the light.
Everything in the trailer fits squarely within Waititi’s wheelhouse; he’s stacked his cast with comedy veterans like Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, and Stephen Merchant, as well as showing off a nicely anachronistic use of pop music in its German covers of Bowie’s Heroes and The Monkees’ I’m A Believer. Then there’s the tremendous child actors, a real strength of the director’s previous efforts Boy and Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Newcomer Roman Griffin Davis is the precocious, hateful Jojo, and McKenzie has already demonstrated a piercing emotional maturity in Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace.
Not to mention Waititi’s bonkers whiteface performance as Hitler. sharing his typically irreverent reasons for deciding to play the dictator on Instagram, Waititi posted, ‘what better way to insult Hitler than having him portrayed by a Polynesian Jew?’
Jojo Rabbit looks like it might attempt to walk the same tightrope as 1997’s Life Is Beautiful – blending cutesy comedy with a sentimental family storyline, all against a bleak historical backdrop. Whether that risky combination works will be up to JIFF audiences, who will be first in line to check out the film at the tail end of the already-impressive festival line-up.
Find tickets for Classic in Melbourne here, for Ritz in Sydney here, and for JIFF here.
