What
does it take to break indoctrination? How do you obliterate a hate that has
been sowed in someone from when they were a baby? These are some of the
questions that Taika Waititi tries to answer in this Noir Dramedy. Set in the
1940s Germany, Jojo Rabbit is about a Little Nazi Boy, his imaginary friend
"Adolf" (yup, you know the one), his Mother who secretly works for
the Resistance, and the Jew Girl who is hidden in the walls of his dead
sister's room.
Sounds
heavy, Nein? Actually no. The Story is told from the point of view of the 10-year-old
Johannes Betzler who is such a Nazi fanatic that it took him three weeks to get
over the fact that his grandfather was not Blond. In the first scene of the
movie, we see young Johannes getting ready to join the JungVolk (Hitler Youth)
in a training weekend, which according to him will be very "intense".
When he has a moment of insecurity his imaginary friend steps up and gives him
a pep talk.
The
Weekend training camp Johannes goes to is the stuff Google vomits at us when we
google Nazi Youth Training Camp, a gaggle of blond haired blue eyed
"Aryan" specimens training to become the ideal Jew Hating Nazi. The
boys are told they will be trained in Warfare, and the girls will be trained in
how to pop out Nazi babies, thereby doing their duty to the Fatherland. It is
at this point, Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) proudly announces that she popped
out 18 babies for the Fatherland.
The
Camp begins, and there comes a point when Johannes is asked to kill a rabbit,
and when he is unable to, he is called a coward and named "Jojo
Rabbit". To prove that he is not a coward, he throws a hand grenade, which
explodes in his hand, and leaves him with a scar on one side of his face and a
crippled leg. He is sent back home to recover, and at that time, he discovers
that his mother is hiding Elsa, a Jew Girl in the walls of his dead sister,
Inge's room. The rest of the movie deals with how Jojo comes to terms with the
fact that Jews are not as horrible as he thinks they were, falls in love with
Elsa (ultimately he realises he is too young for her, and asks her to trust him
like a little brother), and lastly, throws the Swastika Arm Band at Hitler's
Face. Massive turn around for someone who had previously described himself as
someone who is "massively into Swastikas".
The
movie starts off in a light vein with a little boy and a comic Hitler. Hitler
even though is a comedic version of the original, harbors the same feelings of
Antisemitism, Hate, and absolute reverence to the idea of a perfect Aryan
World, and is just as insecure as we all imagined him to be. Then as the plot
progresses, we see darkness, at first it is hidden here and there just like the
Jew Girl hiding in darkness, and then slowly it is everywhere. There are
poignant scenes like the ones where where Jojo and his mother see the bodies of
the people who were hung, the time Jojo confirms that Jews like ugliness and we
all know he's thinking that Elsa will like him despite the ugly scar on his
face, the time where Captain Klenzendorf calls Jojo a Jew to help him escape
certain death in the hands of the American soldiers, and lastly when Jojo
discovers his mother’s body hanging, and then ties her shoelaces, just like she
taught him to.
The
movie is relevant in these times of fascism, institutionalized hatred,
dangerous nationalism and fanatic indoctrination. The opening credits of the
film feature the crowds of Germans in almost a Beatlemania type hysteria while
attending Hitler's speeches. For all the Indians out there, looks familiar, no?
What
does it take to break indoctrination? How do you obliterate a hate that has
been sowed in someone from when they were a baby? Truth and coming face to face
with the fact that they have been brought up with lies. Jojo could have easily
grown to become the Jamia Shooter or the Shaheen Bagh Shooter, such was the
intensity of his indoctrination. He was such a Nazi that even his mother
thought that he was a Fanatic. I am reading similar reports about the Shaheen
Bagh Shooter and his intense feelings of admiration toward the Hindi Rashtra.
Sanghis who read this will probably say I am being paranoid, but their brothers
on Twitter have called me worse.
Watch
this movie, take your friends, you family or your significant other. Tell
people to watch it because this movie deserves to be seen. Watch it for Jojo's
friend Yorki, who personally does not see that the big deal about Jews is.
Watch it for the obviously gay Captain Glenzendorf and his paramour Finkel, who
try very hard to hide it from their homophobic Nazi Party. Watch it for that
scene where the Gestapo comes to the Betzler Home. Watch it for the dark
comedy. But, please watch the movie. Peace.
