TIFF 19: JoJo Rabbit a 'tour-de force of filmmaking,' says co-star Stephen Merchant

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Jojo Rabbit is kind of hard to explain but basically it’s this: After a young German boy, who is a member of the Hitler Youth, (as played by newcomer Roman Griffin Davis) discovers a Jewish girl hiding in his house during the Second World War, he consults with his imaginary best friend Adolf Hitler, played by director-screenwriter Taika Waititi (Boy, What We Do in the Shadows and Thor: Ragnarok).

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The movie had its world premiere as part of TIFF at the Princess of Wales Theatre on Sunday night where Waititi, who is half-Jewish/half-Maori, Scarlett Johansson, who plays the boy’s mother involved in the resistance, and Sam Rockwell all walked the red carpet but only spoke to about a third of the press present.

That left co-stars Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones) and Stephen Merchant (The Office) to explain the film’s tone.

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“I would describe it as harrowing, touching and hilarious at the same time,” said Allen. “I wouldn’t really be able to kind of box it into some kind of genre or give you some kind of tagline of what it is. But I’d say that’s kind of the way forward in what we should be doing. We shouldn’t be categorizing ourselves into anything and should really just look at things with positivity and not cynicism. I think so much of social media and anything online is just sort of shrouded in negativity and so I think if you do feel that way about this movie, test yourself, go see it and see how it makes you feel.”

Added Merchant: “I have to say that I went in to see the finished film, I did not expect (Waititi) to find the tone so perfectly. I thought, ‘How’s he going to go from broad, sometimes surreal comedy — almost Monty Python-style comedy — to real emotion and big themes?’ And somewhere midway between the movie, I tell you, it grips you. And by the end, you’re emotional and you’re teary-eyed and you really feel like you’ve been taken on a journey and you’re kind of uplifted and inspired. It’s a real tour-de-force of filmmaking. I don’t know quite how he pulled that off. I was dazzled. I really was.”

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