George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp star in writer/director Nathalie Biancheri's Wolf for Feline Films.

Nathalie Biancheri’s Wolf adds George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp

Screen Daily is reporting that George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp have signed up to star in writer/director Nathalie Biancheri’s Wolf.

Wolf is a film about a seventeen year old boy, Jacob, who is trying to repress some unfathomable, lupine instincts. He is sent to the “Zoo” a clinic which specialises in curing this disorder – a little known but growing condition called species dysphoria in which people believe they are an animal trapped in a human body. The patients undergo a series of increasingly odd and violent repressive therapies and Jacob’s only respite comes from his secret nocturnal meetings with another patient, the Wildcat. A love story begins between the two -but will he be able to renounce his true, wild self, for love?

The inspiration comes from a real condition, species dysphoria, in which people believe they are an animal trapped in a human body. I wanted to depart from reality and take the film into an increasingly disturbing and violent microcosm where I could explore the meaning of the pressure to conform and how far we’ve departed from our basic instincts. The world of the film is colourful and perpetually ambiguous. Ultimately however it is Jacob’s story and in the simplest form, a quest for personal freedom.

Nathalie Biancheri , Writer/Director (Talking to Screen)

The film is produced by Jessie Fisk (Song of Granite) for production company Feline Films, which Fisk runs with Biancheri. Wolf is executive produced by Jane Doolan (MAZE) and co-produced with Mariusz Włodarski and Agnieszka Wasiak of Lava Films in Poland. It is backed by Screen Ireland, Eurimages, and the Polish Film Institute.

Feline Films aims to produce innovative and thought provoking feature films and documentaries which support diversity in both subject matter and talent. The company’s first fiction feature will be Wolf, developed at Le Group Ouest’s ‘Less Is More’ script lab. Wolf was awarded development funding from the Women In Film Lottery Fund in 2017 and won the Danny Lerner Grand Prix for Best Project at the 15th edition of the Sofia Meetings co-production market in 2018. It subsequently went to the EFM Co-Production Market at last year’s Berlinale.

British sales agent Bankside Films will look to sell the worldwide sales rights to the film at the European Film Market next week. Wolf is set to begin shooting in Ireland in April.

Wolf is one of the most striking and original stories we have seen. It tackles important and timely themes including identity and self-determination with a vision that is unique yet highly relatable. Nathalie has created a wonderfully heightened world inhabited by the most compelling characters which will speak to audiences globally.

Stephen Kelliher – Bankside (Talking to Screen)

Wolf was the starting point for Feline Films, we had this daring and truly special idea which was the very root of the material we wanted the company to produce.

Jessie Fisk, Producer – Feline Films (Talking to Screen)