‘It’s still your baby, it just has different clothes’
It was Taika Waititi’s mum who got him to read the book that launched Jojo Rabbit.
Nelson-based author Christine Leunens, on whose book the movie is based, said Waititi’s mother read Caging Skies and told him he needed to read it. Trouble was, he kept telling her he didn’t have time.
‘‘But she insisted,’’ Leunens said. ‘‘I have to really thank her because then he wrote to me and said, ‘Yeah, she’s right’.’’
Waititi confirmed it was his mum who got him onto the book.
He said he had always been drawn to stories that saw life through children’s eyes.
‘‘My grandfather fought against the Nazis in World War II and I’ve always been fascinated by that time and those events. When my mother told me about Christine Leunens’ book Caging Skies, I was drawn in by the fact it was told through the eyes of a German child indoctrinated into hate by adults.’’
As a father, he was even more aware of the responsibility of adults to guide children through life and raise them to be better versions of themselves.
‘‘Yet in times of war, adults are often doing the opposite. In fact, from a child’s point of view, during these times adults appear chaotic and absurd when all the world needs is guidance and balance.’’
As a child, he had experienced prejudice growing up as a Maori Jew, Waititi said.
‘‘So making Jojo Rabbit has been a reminder, especially now, that we need to educate our kids about tolerance and continue to remind ourselves that there’s no place in this world for hate. Children are not born with hate, they are trained to hate.’’
The book was inspired by an elderly French woman Leunens be-friended, whose family hid a Jewish man after he had fled Poland during war. After the war they married.
‘‘I always felt there was something in that – having someone in your home in hiding – that relationship you would have with the person. I let my imagination take it from there.’’
The French woman never knew she was the influence behind the book and by the time it was written – over five years while Leunens lived in Normandy with her husband – she had died.
Leunens wrote it in the library at the Memorial Museum for Peace. An apt location, as the museum had sound effects of bombing, launching over Leunens’ head every five minutes. To make the book as historically correct as possible, she spoke with ordinary people who lived through the war.
She believed the book’s popularity came from hints of small, everyday things that made it relatable.
‘‘Respectful’’ Waititi had travelled to Nelson several times to discuss the book with Leunens, and she loves the result.
‘‘He sent me the screenplay and he said, ‘It’s still your baby, it just has different clothes’. At first I thought I would end up being on the set some place in New Zealand, helping cook the meals and watch the kids ... a movie on a shoestring budget.’’
Caging Skies is released in bookstores from October 1. Christine Leunens is featuring at the Nelson Arts Festival Pukapuka Talks at Founders Heritage Park on October 27. Visit eventfinda.co.nz.