At the Venice International Film Festival, Alessandro Rak was a guest on Hollywood Party, the renowned Rai Radio 3 show hosted by Alberto Crespi and Steve Della Casa. Live from the Lido, the director introduced Rukeli, his animated short screened Out of Competition.

The film tells the true story of Johann Wilhelm Trollmann, nicknamed Rukeli (meaning “tree” in Romani), a Sinto boxer who in the 1930s became Germany’s middleweight champion under the Nazi regime. Labeled “undesirable,” he was stripped of his title, persecuted, and eventually deported to a concentration camp, where he died in 1944.

With a poetic and expressive animation style, Rak revives Trollmann’s memory, turning him into a universal symbol of resistance, identity and dignity.

The short is produced by AntropicA (Parsifal Reparato) in coproduction with Sideways Studios and Film i Väst, in association with Mad Entertainment, and in collaboration with Rai Cinema, with the support of Film Commission Regione Campania. Distribution is handled by Premiere Film.
Rukeli was born from an idea by the association Chi rom e chi no, developed in the creative workshops of Scampia with young Roma and Italian students from ITIS Galileo Ferraris, as part of the European project Tracer (Transformative Roma Art and Culture for European Remembrance).

Click here to listen to the interview.