Baltic Event Co-Production Market
Ruki's First Summer
A 10-year-old girl sets out on the greatest adventure of her lifetime: A summer holiday that with the help of her father and an old soup chicken leads her into the Tunisian desert where she finds her roots and learns to navigate another culture.
Finally, summer holidays! For 10-year-old Sarah, that means that she gets to visit her estranged Tunisian father Khaled on the holiday island of Djerba. At first, Sarah is in heaven: fishing, swimming, picnicking on the beach, and riding mopeds with her dad. But soon reality strikes and Khaled has to go back to work. On a construction site, Sarah causes an accident and from here on out she feels foreign and misses her mother. At the local market, Sarah is completely overwhelmed and saves a pitiful chicken from becoming their dinner. She names it Ruki and never lets her out of her sight. Having underestimated taking care of a little girl all by himself, Khaled decides to take her to his family living in an oasis in the desert. A great adventure through the beautiful country begins where Sarah and Ruki have to overcome many challenges. With the help of her new friend, she finds a second home, reunites her family and her dream of the perfect summer holidays finally becomes a reality.
Keywords: familial relationships, feel-good, animals
Frédérique Veith is a German-French director, journalist, and producer. Following her internship at Saarländischer Rundfunk, she worked for five years as an editor and author in culture, family programming, entertainment, and television drama. She then moved to Berlin and completed the Producer Program 2003/2004 at the dffb. Alongside her producer work, she co-directed her debut film "FUSSBALLGÖTTINNEN" (funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Saarland Medien, Kulturelle Filmförderung Schleswig-Holstein, and Filmförderung NRW), which premiered in cinemas through Edition Satzgeber in 2006. Today, she primarily works as an author and director for public television in Germany and abroad. Her short film "DIE SOMMERSPROSSE" (funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg and Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein) screened at numerous international film festivals and had multiple cinema releases as part of Spatzenkino in Berlin and Brandenburg.
Philipp is a producer from Germany and has been with Schiwago Film for 6 years. Originally, he studied philosophy and film studies, but knew early on that he wanted to make films and not just talk about them. In the past years he has been developing and producing a diverse slate of TV films, Series and cinema productions. Rukis First Summer is his first film for a young audience.