Paris (AFP)

For New Zealand director Taika Waititi, of Jewish and Maori descent, playing Hitler was "not something he was prepared for". In "Jojo Rabbit", however, he slips into the dictator's costume for a funny bet: a comedy about Nazi Germany.

The idea of ​​the film, which will be released in France and Belgium on Wednesday (and is already in theaters in several European countries) "always seemed to me to be something risky, a little dangerous. I think that's what made me 'attracted', underlines the director, whose film, audience prize at the Toronto festival in September, has been nominated six times for the Oscars.

"I had the feeling that if my career were to end, and everything had to go wrong, it had to be with this one," slips the man who directed independent feature films, the blockbuster "Thor: Ragnarok" and worked on the Star Wars universe series "The Mandalorian".

In "Jojo Rabbit", which takes place in Germany during the Second World War, Taika Waititi tells the story of a ten-year-old child, Jojo. He likes Nazi uniforms and seeing books burn, but is considered too weak to be a good member of the Hitler Youth, hence his nickname "Jojo Rabbit" because he failed to kill a rabbit.

One day, he discovers that his mother, interpreted by Scarlett Johansson, hides a young Jewish girl in the attic. The young boy, whose imaginary confidant is a clownish-looking Hitler, will be led to question his certainties.

- "Diversity is me" -

It was Taika Waititi's mother who recommended reading the novel "Le ciel en cage" by Christine Leunens, from which he drew the screenplay. He added a good dose of humor and the character of Hitler, which he made grotesque and childish.

"There was no way I could paint a real portrait of Hitler, otherwise I think it would have ruined the film. We had to have the impression of another child in the room. As he just the mind of a ten year old child, he only knows what we know at this age ", explains the 44 year old filmmaker, who quotes Charlie Chaplin, Mel Brooks or Stanley Kubrick of" Doctor Folamour "among his sources inspiration.

While the studio Fox Searchlight, which bought the film, asked him to play the role of Hitler, the filmmaker, also actor, emphasizes that he was not really prepared for it.

"I have dark skin, I am New Zealander, I am Jewish, Hitler was not really a role that I thought I could play", jokes this son of Maori who, questioned on the Oscars accused again of being too white and too masculine, coward: "Diversity is me".

- "outsiders" -

If he got into the game to play Hitler, it was "horrible, really embarrassing, he agrees." You look silly, and the clothes are uncomfortable, "as is" the makeup, the mustache, the hairstyle".

For the filmmaker, making this film - which he sees as a "satire declaring war on hatred" - was not intended to "generate controversy", but to "tell a good story" and to do it "in his way".

"I wanted to see the picture of a young child and Hitler together," he says. "I knew there would be people who would not be comfortable with the film," he continued, however, in response to those who criticized the film's unexpected bias. "But I feel like it's a way of closing off to new ways of thinking about the subject."

For Taika Waititi, "there is a need for other perspectives". "I have the impression that as New Zealanders, we always have an outside view, so we are very observant," he adds. "It is as if, whatever the subject we are talking about, it is always from an outsider point of view".

© 2020 AFP