Jojo RabbitIs Anything but a Typical World War II Movie

There are films set inGermany during World War II, and then there isJojo Rabbit．的f-kilter satire (opening in theaters Friday, October 18) revolves around Jojo Betzler, a sweet and lonely 10-year-old boy who converses with his bumbling imaginary friend named…Adolf Hitler. When the young Nazi in training (played by Roman Griffin Davis) discovers that his resistance-fighting single mom, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), is hiding a Jewish teen girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home, he combats his beliefs and befriends her.

“The movie shows the innocence and optimistic outlook of youth,” production designer Ra Vincent tellsArchitectural Digest.“And a childhood memory is often triggered by bright color, as if it’s a summer day.”

As Vincent tells it, this unique whimsy was evident in writer-director-actor Taika Waititi’s script even in its earliest iteration back in 2012. (The two New Zealanders worked together onWhat We Do in the ShadowsandThor: Ragnarokin the interim.) That’s why Vincent was determined to avoid copying the look of other films from the same historical period. “The easy option was to rehash other World War II movies and think in terms of grays and muted tones,” he says. “Germany in the 1930s was this vibrant country, and society was at its artistic zenith. We’re also dealing with a child who has the fondest aspirations for his world. He just happens to be indoctrinated into believing this falsehood that his people are the greatest.”

Much to Vincent’s pleasant surprise (“I thought we’d have to film in a New Zealand soundstage!”), teamJojogot the green light to film in the Czech Republic. His goal was to pick villages with a certain ornate charm. “The color in these baroque villages spoke to Jojo’s point of view,” he explains. Vincent learned over the course of production that the locations also held poignant significance. “These towns had their own experience with Nazi occupation, so the research came to us,” he explains. Rosie takes her son around the town square in Zatec, where memorabilia from the time remains on display, and a Nazi propaganda machine rolled through the gothic town of Ustek, site of the Betzler residence.

The interior of the home represents the heart of the story, as this is where Jojo learns to change his mind-set. The interior was built from scratch in a studio in Prague. “The concept was that Rosie and her husband were not extremely wealthy but wealthy enough to have a three-bedroom house,” he says. “And they had renovated the old baroque into a specific Art Deco style from the 1930s.” The basic set design features elegant touches such as thick doorway framing, windows recessed deeply into the stone walls, a wood-paneled hallway, and a curving stairway.

It is the moment when Jojo hears a noise and heads into the Victorian-styled bedroom once occupied by his now deceased sister that the mood of the film begins to shift. “It looks subdued to give us a melancholy feel,” he says. “We want to convey that something happened in this room before the time we’re experiencing now.” Then he discovers Elsa hidden in the crawlspace between the roof and the room’s ceiling: “It’s dark and dusty and now we’re in the danger zone.” Their tentative, unlikely bond blossoms in color-saturated rooms that are richly decorated.

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More than a year after the eight-week shoot, the cast and crew unveiledJojo Rabbitat the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It won the coveted audience award, much to Vincent’s delight, yet not his surprise. “It’s a comedy, but I think people responded to the honesty in the storytelling,” he says. “People value the real innocence of youth, and this is a subtle warning to all of us that we’re old enough to be teachers. We should be more careful about what we say or do in front of optimistic children.”