Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #60. Adrian Panek’s Werewolf

Werewolf

One of the more foreboding projects of 2018 promises to be Polish director Adrian Panek’s sophomore film, Werewolf. Set immediately after the end of WWII in 1945, several child survivors of the concentration camp Gross-Rosen are deposited in a tiny orphanage in the middle of the woods run by fellow survivor Hanna, a twenty-year-old girl. As the children attempt to recoup, the orphanage is set upon by ravenous wolf dogs that had previously used to guard them in the camp. Obviously, metaphorical motifs of restored civilization versus the void of the wilderness will be juxtaposed in the limbo represented by the orphanage, but Panek’s subject matters sounds as fascinating as it does disturbing. Danuta Stenka, Sonia Mietelica, Nicolas Przygoda and Werner Daehn make up the cast.

Release Date/Prediction: Panek’s 2011 debut Daas never ventured outside of Poland, but the Polish/Dutch/German co-production, which filmed from July through November seems destined to make a formidable festival entry. While the shooting schedule may preclude a possibility of Berlin, Panek may find himself seeking a Cannes premiere, potentially in Directors’ Fortnight or Un Certain Regard.