Director Taika Waititi on the darkness of Jojo Rabbit

It’s hard to imagine having the guts to pitch—let alone make—a movie about a boy and his imaginary friend Hitler, but that’s why Taika Waititi makes the big bucks. The director has been dreaming of making the new Jojo Rabbit for some time, and only managed to seal the deal when he agreed to play the aforementioned genocidal dictator. The A.V. Club talked to him about the film’s origins and messages at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie garnered, as IndieWire wrote, both “Oscar buzz and some outspoken detractors.”