Yesterday I watched JoJo Rabbit for the first time.
Now I am a lover of mixed often surreal comedy and this ticked a lot of boxes.
However this is not a comedy as such because it is set towards the end of the Second World War.
The premise is that a boy joins the Hitler Youth and is being guided by his invisible friend Adolf.
Unbeknownst to him.his mother is hiding a Jewish woman in the house as she isn’t a fan of the regime.
When he joins the Hitler Youth he accidentally injures himself trying to prove his bravery. this then gets him kudos within the troop.
Having a Jewish girl in the home challenges his norms and the beliefs that he had about others who have been made the scapegoat or the bullied by the bully.
If we look at the modern world, how many of us would believe the hysteria that truth was fake news but we have lived through Trump’s America ( still waiting for the fake re-inauguration)
I won’t share anymore of the storylines but it made me think of other works that I read as a child including Anne Frank’s diary, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and then as an adult, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.
This film also makes you reflect on the fragility of childhood, influences and some of the antihero characters who turn out to help save the the day, including one of the ‘baddies’
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Author: Joe Campling
Joseph Campling lives in Buckinghamshire, and is married with adult children.
He trained as a both a General and Mental Health Nurse in the South East of the United Kingdom in the mid 1980’s and has worked in various roles over the past 30 years.
His first authored article in 2007 was jointly written about the need to share positive research based practice amongst care teams locally which was then published in a professional journal.
He published “Mild Musings May Mitigate My Mentality” which was his first collection of poems in 2018.
He has subsequently published MERRING or is it MRS GREN?
Having written sporadically over the years (usually for friends and family) he has been writing more consistently over the past two years and has begun to recite his poetry at various Open Mic nights and Spoken Word events. He is often found ‘scribbling’ and then performing what he has just written.
He recently has also been collaborating with a jazz composer by writing lyrics which have been put to music.
His interests include watching live music, trying to play the guitar (still project in progress) and quizzing. He also likes to watch TV; mostly factual documentaries, comedy and quiz shows
He also needs to read more and swears that he will do so very soon as he has a pile of books to read.
He also ‘hangs out’ with members of the local drama club although he has no plans to act but is partial to the odd pint of orange juice and lemonade!!
He follows rugby and can sometimes be found cheering his team on (London Irish) whether they win or lose.
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Joe the poet 