Summer of 1945. A temporary orphanage is established in an abandoned palace surrounded by forests for the eight children liberated from the Gross-Rosen camp. Hanka, also a former inmate, becomes their guardian. After the atrocities of the camp, the protagonists slowly begin to regain what is left of their childhood but the horror returns quickly. Camp Alsatians roam the forests around. Released by the SS earlier on, they have gone feral and are starving. Looking for food they... (Full plot summary below)
FREE with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Summer of 1945. A temporary orphanage is established in an abandoned palace surrounded by forests for the eight children liberated from the Gross-Rosen camp. Hanka, also a former inmate, becomes their guardian. After the atrocities of the camp, the protagonists slowly begin to regain what is left of their childhood but the horror returns quickly. Camp Alsatians roam the forests around. Released by the SS earlier on, they have gone feral and are starving. Looking for food they besiege the palace. The children are terrified and their camp survival instinct is triggered.
Leave your thoughts about Werewolf.
| Globe and MailBarry HertzThis is a raw, intense movie circling on despair, hopelessness and inevitable dead ends. It is about the dark. But in plumbing the pitch black, Werewolf offers the distinct hope of a brighter future – at least, a brighter future for Canadian cinema. |
| Cinema ScopeAdam NaymanThe finely gradated interactions between the protagonists and different representatives of various institutional establishments place empathy and ambivalence side by side. |
| Birth.Movies.Death.Amelia EmberwingWerewolf is a beautiful look at what people can do under the most gruesome of circumstances. |
| FF2 MediaAmelie LaskerThe film is at many times hard to watch, but its nuanced character development makes it a story worth telling. |
| National PostChris KnightMcKenzie doesn't stoop to deliver a pat happy ending, and even the moderately upbeat final scene features an oddly discordant note in the score that suggests not all is well. |
| Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMcKenzie deserves credit for revealing such a troubling facet of her homeland, and even if the shallow focus — both literal and figurative — of her movie can be frustrating at times, she bravely never turns away. |
| Village VoiceBilge EbiriIts story may be thin, its characters not particularly original, but McKenzie’s use of cinematic language is savvy and novel, finding complexity where others might find only emptiness. |
| Chicago ReaderJ. R. JonesHer characters are a little too blank to sustain interest through an entire film, but this modest indie generates a haunting mood of 21st-century despair. |
| Birth.Movies.Death.Leigh MonsonEmotionally disturbing and authentic, this is a film that exemplifies the potential of the woman behind the camera by showing the potential of a woman in a harrowing circumstance taking the first steps toward recovery. |
| Film Comment MagazineNick PinkertonScene by scene, what McKenzie is after is capturing the process of a young woman walling herself off from sentimental appeal in order to save her own life, steeling herself for the long walk away from the wreck of her man. |
