Rocca Changes the World

Rocca is a unique 11 year-old girl with a gung-ho attitude to life. As her father is an astronaut on the International Space Station, she is sent to live with her grandmother in Hamburg. At school she struggles to conform and challenges the things that she sees as unjust. When her grandmother is hospitalised Rocca is left home alone and must find a way not to be taken into social care, while at the same time using social media to tackle bullying at school and the attitude to the homeless people in the town.

‘”Rocca” takes us back to the feeling of great children stories [that] didn’t highlight the difference between people, but were brimming full of fantasy, ideas, the vision of justice and carried the conviction that children can change things in a big way for the greater good – in an unbridled, wild and wonderful way. What is needed is curiosity and courage. Both of these traits are found in Rocca, the strong and unconventional protagonist. She shows everybody how easy life can be when we stand up for each other and work together to get things done. And it’s lots of fun, too. It’s not a new idea to teach children to be nice to each other, but Rocca does it in a different way: she doesn’t dictate the ways in which we should act, but her questions will stay in your mind. And questions change the world. Just like Rocca.’

Director, Katja Benrath