Big family entertainment adapted from the eponymous bestseller by Sabine Kuegler.

Sabine Kuegler’s compelling biography, which sold more than 1.5 million copies and has been translated into 31 languages, tells the true story of a German girl who grows up as a child in the jungles of Papua New Guinea among a previously undiscovered tribe. Most of the filming for the unusual production takes place in the virgin rainforests of Malaysia. Other locations are Berlin, Munich and North Rhine-Westphalia.  

Thomas Kretschmann (“Valkyrie", "King Kong", "Mogadishu Welcome") and Nadja Uhl (“The Baader Meinhof Complex," "Summer in Berlin", "Mogadishu Welcome") play the parents, Stella Kunkat (“Romy", "March of Millions") plays Sabine as a child, and Sina Tkotsch ("Gangs") plays her as a teenager.

Sabine is eight years old when she emigrates with her mother and two siblings to Papua New Guinea. Her father is a linguist and is on the verge of a breakthrough. He has managed to snag one of the most coveted research contracts in his field – but as a result, the whole family will have to live far from civilization in the jungle for several years. Of them all, Sabine is happiest about this. She seems made for this new environment full of adventure and quickly feels at home. What the family did not realise is that they will be caught in the middle of a tribal war. While it does not concern them directly, they increasingly find themselves being sucked into the conflict. At first the family finds it difficult to understand the reasons for the fighting and are forced to realise that the foreign culture assigns a different value to love and hate, to life and death. So a process of rapprochement begins in which both sides must learn from each other. When Sabine and her brother find a young native boy, Auri, who belongs to the enemy tribe severely injured in the jungle, and the German family takes him in, this puts them all in serious danger, as this act could be decisive in whether there is war or peace between the two tribes. But Sabine and Auri immediately develop a special bond and a deep friendship. They grow up together, and over time the bond between the teenagers is so deep that Sabine is sure that nothing can separate them and she wants to stay with Auri, even if fate has a different future in store for them. When Sabine returns to Germany at the age of 16, she finds herself confronted with a completely new, alien society and its inherent challenges, and embarks on a search for belonging and security – a search, ultimately, for herself.  

The script for JUNGLE CHILD is based on the novel by Sabine Kuegler. It is directed by Roland Suso Richter (“Mogadishu Welcome", "The Miracle of Berlin"). The director of photography is Holly Fink. The producers are Nico Hofmann, Jürgen Schuster, Wolf Bauer, Thomas Peter Friedl and Natalie Scharf. The executive producer is Sebastian is Werning. The creative producer is Matthias Adler.  

JUNGLE CHILD continues UFA CINEMA’s series of lavish screen adaptations of bestselling novels. The film is sponsored by the German Federal Film Fund, Film Foundation NRW, the German Film Board, the Bavarian Film and Television Fund and the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.  

JUNGLE CHILD will be distributed in the German-speaking countries by Universal Pictures International Germany (cinema), in cooperation with UFA CINEMA Verleih GmbH (home entertainment) and by ARD Degeto (television), with Hans-Wolfgang Jurgan serving as editor.  

The theatrical release of JUNGLE CHILD is planned for December 2010.