Police pursue a pregnant woman across a snow-covered field and she goes into premature labour. A young girl, the result of the birth, announces in voiceover that she didn’t meet her mother until seven years later. Wolfy charts the ongoing course of their relationship. The little girl rarely sees her mother, and is left in the care of her grandmother and, subsequently, an invalid aunt. Her mother seems to depend on the sexual favours of men and occasionally brings her presents, most significantly a spinning top (‘volchok’, which is also the Russian for little wolf).

A strikingly imagined combination of social observation and fairy tale, Wolfy is based on the experiences of leading actress Yana Troyanova, who plays the role of the mother. While the subject is, on the surface, grim, writer/director Vasili Sigarev deliberately sought ‘the sensation of childhood memories’, arguing that childhood memories can be beautiful regardless.

Peter Hames, BFI London Film Festival Programme