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    Rukeli

    Alessandro Rak
    Italy, Sweden | 2025 | 5’30’’

    Johann Wilhelm Trollmann became middleweight champion in Nazi Germany. He was the first Rom to win this title in world boxing. With the promulgation of the racial laws, he was stripped of the title, separated from his family, subjected to chemical castration, and imprisoned in the concentration camps of Wittenberge and Neuengamme, where he died at the age of 37. Before dying, reduced to a skeleton, he fought one last time with a Nazi kapo who recognized and challenged him.

    Direction: Alessandro Rak
    Animation: Alessandro Rak
    Screenplay: Biagio Di Bennardo, Emma Ferulano
    Editing: Andrea Scoppetta
    Sound Design: Andreas Mellkvist
    Sound Mixing: Jesper Miller
    Music: Marco Sica
    Voices: Antonio De Matteo, Alecio Araci
    Producer: Parsifal Reparato
    Production: AntropicA
    Co-producer: Samir Arabzadeh, Fredrik Svensson, Jenny Luukkonen
    Co-production: Sideways Studios, Film i Väst
    In association with: Mad Entertainment
    In collaboration with: Rai Cinema
    Supported by: FCRC

    Alessandro Rak

    Alessandro Rak, one of the leading figures in Italian animated cinema, is an Italian cartoonist, animator, and director, graduated from the CSC in Rome. He has published comics and illustrated books and directed short films and music videos. His films include: L’arte della felicità (2014), presented as a Special Event at the Venice Film Festival; Gatta Cenerentola (2017), winner of two David di Donatello Awards; and Yaya and Lennie – The Walking Liberty (2021), selected for Locarno and Annecy. He also created the animated theme song for the docu-series L’arte della felicità in 2022, and in 2023, together with Dario Sansone, he directed the animated inserts for Massimo Ferrari’s documentary 4 Days for Freedom. In 2024, he presented the short film F II- Lo stupore del mondo at the Venice Film Festival; Rukeli was also presented at Venice in 2025.