Roikin <3

At the age of 12, Roikin was already in the crosshairs of the Marseille courts. Police custody, cautions and petty theft prompted his three educators to take him away from the city for a while. They accompany him to Italy, to a rehabilitation centre where a strange change of scenery takes effect. But one day, overtaken by his impulses, Roikin goes on the run. The three young women set out to find him, questioning their role in Roikin's life choices. In the meantime, he meets a skilled rider who cannot fail to shake things up. This young character reveals the sensitivity, beauty and unique gentleness of children who grow up in violent and precarious circumstances. This bright-eyed, fictionalised version of reality, wrapped in the innocence of a fairytale, is recounted here through a collective filmic experience. The result of a workshop held in a working-class district of Marseille, Roikin <3 is carried by the strength of its protagonists, who depict their realities in their own way, with great freedom of writing.

Aurélien Marsais