Almost every fifth child in Germany is mentally ill, but only every tenth receives timely therapy. The Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists wanted to make this care problem visible — for politicians, decision makers and the public. Not with cold statistics, but with a story that gets under your skin. We tell the story of Luca, a 12-year-old boy who feels empty, can't sleep anymore and has been waiting for a therapy spot for six months. This one story becomes a social one: Why does the system fail? What needs to change? And what does it take now so that children like Luca no longer have to wait?
The film begins deliberately close and personal: a darkened children's room, muted colors, a child waiting. We have developed a color dramaturgy that makes the emotional state directly legible: Cool shades of blue and desaturation darken more and more as you wait — and only turn into bright blue at the end when hope comes into view. The characters are clearly drawn but never striking. Luca is not a symbolic figure, but a real child with body language, facial expressions and a story.
Where the film needs to explain something, we change the means: infographics, split screens and a map of Germany with vibrant gaps. The comparison that stands: a child with a broken bone would never wait six months — is presented as a classic counterpart. Everything runs smoothly on the left, Luca sits alone on his bed. The animations remain calm and focused, never hectic. Every scene is perfect. At the end, the film opens: reform flyers, Bundestag silhouettes, rising speech bubbles — and behind them the children from the beginning, this time in bright light.
CLIENT: BundesPsychotherapeutenkammer
PRODUCTION: Kim Venus, TheresaSchwierske
CONCEPT & SCRIPT: Kim Venus
DESIGN: Marcel Vockrodt
lLLUSTRATION: Zeynep Celik, Marcel Vockrodt
ANIMATION: Marcel Vockrodt, Zeynep Celik
SOUND: Kim Venus
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