By: Rabani Khurana
Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit is a satire set during the Second World War. Jojo is a curious ten year old boy with hardly any friends brainwashed into thinking that the war must go on forever and this must happen with him fighting alongside the Fuhrer himself. His blind fanaticism reaches a level where Hitler becomes his imaginary friend played by Waititi himself.
Jojo’s father is presumed dead in the war and his mother (Rosie) played by Scarlett Johansson has quite opposing views than her impressionable son. She hides a young Jewish girl named Elsa who is the ultimate conduit of empathy in this movie. Jojo and Elsa slowly form a friendship as Jojo decides to spend his days writing a book on Jews. The movie starting off as very light and humorous takes an emotional turn revealing the true motive of the film. It raises an important question of how far can our beliefs take us away from humanity.
The chilling scenes of war portrayed towards the end of the movie make you wonder if the either sides of the war stopped to see the raw carnage of war or think about the family members of the people they were killing, will they see the horned mutants that sleep upside down like bats that they have convinced these young minds to believe in or has the need of establishing supremacy blinded them so much. It’s mind boggling how only the symbol on Jojo’s jacket determined whether he deserved to live or die.
The movie also narrates Elsa’s story who is just a 17 year old girl separated from her family, living her life in pure fear with the aim of surviving the day which in Rosie’s eyes as she says is a win against the enemy war. There are chilling scenes in this movie which fill you with remorse and truly depict the plight of all people fighting not in the war but for humanity like the scene when Rosie and Jojo walk past the exhibit of hanging bodies at the town square and Jojo asks her “what did they do?” and she said “what they could”.
This movie is in totality a heartwarming film which fills you with hard hitting questions but making you laugh while you do so.
Tabeer 