Director Taika Waititi plays Adolf Hitler, the imaginary friend and confidante of a 10-year-old member of the Hitler Youth in Fox Searchlight’s anti-hate satire “Jojo Rabbit.”
The official trailer, which debuted Tuesday, is set in the closing years of the Second World War in Germany. The new footage, score to the strains of a German version of The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer,” opens with an increasingly distressed Jojo (portrayed by Roman Griffin Davis) facing the rigors of training. In his bedroom, he tells Waititi’s Hitler, “I don’t think I can do this.”
The Fuhrer responds, “Of course you can.”
Later in the clip, Jojo is horrified to discover his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl, played by Thomasin McKenzie, though he soon warms to her. When Hitler observes that the two seem to be getting along, Jojo assures him that “she doesn’t seem like a bad person.”
“Jojo Rabbit” will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before hitting theaters on Oct. 18. Waititi, best known for helming “Thor: Ragnarok,” wrote and directed the film based on the novel “Caging Skies.” The wacky comedy also stars Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson.
