Title: Wolfhound (Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov)
Director: Nikolai Lebedev
Starring: Aleksandr Bukharov, Oksana Akinshina, Igor Petrenko
Running: 136 minutes
Certificate: 15
Another Russian movie, released on the same date as Interceptor and also starring Igor Petrenko, Wolfhound was written and directed by Nikolai Lebedev, inspired by Mariya Semyonova’s novel.
This is a fantasy film, in the vein of Conan, Eragon or Lord of the Rings. I can’t pretend that I watch a lot of Russian films, I could probably count them on one hand, but this is still one of the better efforts that I’ve seen. The direction and acting is good.
Aleksandr Bukharov stars as the hero – the wolfhound that has to track down and fight the evil wolf.
Wolfhound was filmed in Slovakia and it certainly has a magical and mystical feel to it. It may not have the vistas of New Zealand that Lord of the Rings had but it’s certainly a suitable place to film such a movie. There is a real feel of magic to the forests, castles and temples in the film. They feel real. I think if this had been filmed somewhere outside of Eastern Europe it might have had a more contemporary feel to it and that really wouldn’t have suited the story. It’s often a failing of films like this that the characters look or sound, or even act in a contemporary way, and that they therefore fail to feel as though they belong to the world that the film is based in. In Wolfhound the actors have managed to make it seem as though they really do inhabit this world.
Wolfhound deserves to find a decent cult following on DVD and I’m sure that it will.
