Indie Wire reports that Focus Features released the official first trailer for Wolf this past week. Wolf is Nocturnal Fimmaker Nathalie Biancheri’s second feature about a man who believes he is a wolf trapped in a human body.
Wolf premiered earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival. Critics liked the unique subject matter of “species dysphoria” and standout performances by George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp.
Indie Wire’s Kate Erbland provides a description for the unusual premise: “The film follows MacKay as Jacob, a young man who suffers from ‘species dysphoria’ and believes himself to be a wolf. Sent to a clinic that specializes in the disorder, Jacob is forced to confront his true nature, while also falling under the spell of Wildcat (Lily-Rose Depp), a mysterious fellow patient at what’s blithely termed ‘the zoo.’”
Species dysphoria is not currently recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but it is an umbrella term for a disorder in which individuals believe they have been born into the body of the wrong species. Biancheri began her career as a documentary filmmaker, thus being drawn to unique topics such as this one because of their real-world implications.
She tells Indie Wire, “I’m going to take the intellectual, emotional side that I find most interesting, and that is, what does it mean to feel like you belong to different skin? Which is obviously a very topical, and to use the dreaded word, universal feeling to explore. And, I think to a certain extent, each one of us feels it for different reasons.”
Focus Features will release Wolf in theaters on December 3. Watch the trailer below.