Films featuring Nazis have taken on a more sobering tone since certain events of 2016, and war films in general now hit rather differently than they did ten years ago.
Modern filmmakers approach the subject of war with a more delicate hand than they used to, and a superb example of nuance and creativity in a World War Two film is the 2019 film Jojo Rabbit.
Written and directed by Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit stars Uckfield child actor Roman Griffin Davis as the eponymous Johannes “Jojo” Betzler, a ten-year-old German boy who is a passionate member of the Hitler Youth and blindly devoted to Hitler – whom he also sees as his imaginary best friend, played with bombast and impeccable comic timing by Taika Waititi.
The film won both awards – including a long list of wins and nominations for Griffin Davis with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor and a Critics’ Choice win for Best Young Performer – and criticism regarding its use of humour in a film dealing, albeit tangentially, with the Holocaust. Even with these critiques, Griffin Davis’ performance gained positive reviews for his role as Jojo, an idealistic child swept up in the Hitler Youth’s rhetoric of glory and his imaginary version of Hitler who is abruptly forced to confront his beliefs when he discovers that his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their house. Griffin Davis gives Jojo a believable warmth and innocence vital to make the audience sympathise with a young Nazi in the making who has to face some harsh truths and learn some terrible lessons as he comes of age in the last years of the Second World War.
Roman Griffin Davis was born in London on 5th March 2007. His parents both work in the industry, with his mother working as a writer-director and his father a cinematographer who has worked on films like Kick-Ass, Hannibal Rising, and several Marvel superhero films. Jojo Rabbit is Griffin Davis’ first film, and he auditioned, thinking it would be a story closer to Peter Rabbit than a story about Nazis. He has an upcoming role in the black comedy Silent Night, starring alongside Matthew Goode, Keira Knightley, and Lily-Rose Depp. His younger twin brothers, Gilby and Hardy, will also feature with him in the film, following on from their appearance in Jojo Rabbit as Hitler Youth clones.
Roman Griffin Davis lives in Uckfield with his family.