A promising name in the short film realm (his 2020 effort People on Saturday won the main prize in the national competition in Locarno), Swiss director Jonas Ulrich has now moved to feature filmmaking with Wolves, first unveiled in Zurich’s Feature Film Competition after already enjoying success on the festival circuit in work-in-progress form (it received a special mention in Tallinn in 2024). As always, the Swiss German dialogue will be a hurdle in the more subtitle-averse parts of the so-called DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), although the focus on metal music may prove helpful in generating some crossover appeal even among the more ardent dialect sceptics.
In fact, if the audience reactions at the screening this writer attended are any indication, metalheads will get the most out of a film that, by all accounts, depicts the underground metal scene in an accurate, recognizable manner. It is here that young Luana (Selma Kopp in her feature debut as an actress), already familiar with this world via her cousin and his band, meets the group’s new front man, the enigmatic Wiktor (Bartosz Bielenia). She is immediately smitten with the Polish-born newcomer, although the relationship acquires disturbing layers when it turns out her sweetheart’s love of freedom may come with some politically charged baggage.
The latter element is arguably the film’s weakest spot, marred by superficial examinations of the topic that do little besides conforming with contemporary bullet points about the alt-right scene. There may be something to such a surface level depiction of elements that regular people are alarmingly blind to in everyday life; in fact, one could imagine Luana is oblivious to the more disturbing implications of Wiktor’s behavior because to her generation, words like “Nazi” are as much an online insult as they are an accurate descriptor for those who do blatantly embrace the philosophies of the world’s most famous Charlie Chaplin lookalike and others with similar mindsets.
And yet, as much as the drama sort of fizzles out towards the end, Wolves remains a propulsive, sturdy, intriguing calling card for Ulrich’s feature film career. Most obviously, he comes across as a solid director of actors, eliciting compelling performances even out of the performers with the most limited screentime, meaning that even as the thematic elements get weaker, the talent tied to that plot strand keeps it eminently watchable. The relationship between the two leads is also handled delicately and intelligently, with Kopp and Bielenia believably navigating the ups and downs of the premise with a mix of grit and vulnerability.
More compelling still is the aural ingredient, as even a metal agnostic like yours truly found himself riveted by every scene featuring the band and their musical exploits, an explosive blend of energetic tunes written by Manuel Gagneux and the dynamic cinematography by Tobias Kubli. The songs are as much an integral part of the cinematic tapestry as they are efficient outside of the film context: in the lead-up to the movie’s release, across the three-year journey to bring the project to the screen, the band performed at numerous venues in Zurich and other cities in German-speaking Switzerland, adding to the raw power of Ulrich’s first feature. When it hits the right notes, the film leaves a lasting impression.
Director, Screenwriter: Jonas Ulrich
Cast: Bartosz Bielenia, Selma Kopp, Judith Hofmann, Thomas Ott, Lale Yavas, Fabian Künzli, Anna Sauter McDowell
Producers: Nicole Ulrich, Philipp Ritler, Jonas Ulrich
Cinematography: Tobias Kubli
Production design: Benjamin Gaschen
Music: Manuel Gagneux, Matteo Pagamici, Michael Künstle
Sound: Oscar van Hoogevest
Production company: Dynamic Frame GmbH
World sales: The Yellow Affair
Venue: Zurich Film Festival (Feature Film Competition)
In Swiss German, English
100 minutes
