Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this remarkable
film has now got a release in its country of origin where I was fortunate to be
able to see it with English undertitles.
Best known as an actress Nicolette Krebitz had directed and written two
feature films prior to Wild (2016) including Jeans (2001) and the better known Heart is A Dark Forest (2007) which
starred German actress Nina Hoss but I think its fair to say that neither would
have prepared you for her latest outing.
Ania leads a very mundane existence. She works as an IT
consultant in a small company where neither her boss Boris nor her co-workers
treat her with respect. She lives in a high-rise apartment with her sister who decides
to move out leaving Ania completely on her own. One grey morning on the way to
work through a wooded enclave on the edge of a built up area she comes upon a
wolf. Something about this wild animal forces Ania to look at her life and she
virtually take on a new identity and begins to assert herself and take charge
of her own existence. Eventually sharing
her apartment with the wolf and forming an attachment with the animal that
crosses the thin line between love and lust.
Its the chemistry between the two leads, Berlin born Lilith
Stangenberg who plays Ania and George Friedrich who plays Boris along side the well
trained wolf and the reversal of the old folk tale Little Red Riding Hood that
makes this movie rather unique. We witness scenes between an animal and a woman
that I can only describe as ‘intimate’ where Ania drops all sense of social
etiquette and normal behaviour along with her inhibitions to evoke her freedom
and personnel happiness. Highly recommended.
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| Lilith Stangenberg. |
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