Film director Taika Waititi, best known for Marvel hit Thor Ragnarok and vampire comedy What We Do In The Shadows has decried New Zealand as "a racist place" in a new interview with Dazed and Confused magazine.

Mr Waititi, the son of a Maori father and a Jewish-European mother, described the type of racism he encounters in his homeland:

"People just flat-out refuse to pronounce Maori names properly. There's still profiling when it comes to Polynesians. It's not even a colour thing - like, 'Oh, there's a black person.' It's, 'If you're Poly then you're getting profiled.'"

The interview, with Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson, ranged across a number of subjects but centrered on their shared New Zealand heritage.

Mr Waititi sheds some light on his new film, which is set during World War 2:  “I’m actually going to Prague tomorrow, I’m gonna shoot the new film over there in June and July. It’s this World War II film.”

When asked where the upcoming movie was..as has been rumoured..a ‘Nazi comedy’ he replies: “ That’s a very simplistic way of describing my film! There’s elements of comedy, and elements of Nazism.”