Taika Waititi is a Polynesian Jew from New Zealand who’s helmed well-loved movies like Thor: Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which makes his next feature a bit of an odder duck than usual: a comedy about a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany who fantasizes that he’s best friends with Hitler himself.
Awfully dicy material, to say the least, but the trailer looks about as full of heart and anti-Nazi hijinks as a movie like this could possibly be. If anyone could pull a feat like this off, it’s Waititi. By the looks of this thing, he just might do it.
There are still lots of ways this could go wrong, but this trailer reveals what sure looks like an excellent, humanizing element in the form of a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding out in Jojo’s house. The thinkpieces are going to be intense on this one.
