Time of the Wolf

Time of the Wolf is a drama directed and written by Michael Haneke. Anne Laurent, her husband Georges and their two children, Eva and Ben, leave the city after a catastrophe and head for their country house, expecting to find safety there. Instead, they discover that strangers have moved in, and the confrontation that follows marks the start of a hard struggle for survival. With water, food, transport and communications gone, the family joins crowds of displaced people trying to endure a world in which ordinary order has collapsed. The film takes its title from the old idea of a period before the end of the world, when values are overturned.

The film is the ninth of the fourteen features Haneke has directed, coming between The Piano Teacher and Caché, and it continues his long collaboration with producer Margaret Ménégoz and with Veit Heiduschka. Isabelle Huppert plays Anne; Patrice Chéreau, Brigitte Roüan, Daniel Duval, Béatrice Dalle and Anaïs Demoustier appear alongside her. Made in Germany, Austria and France for a budget of about ten million dollars, it runs 113 minutes. On IMDb it holds 6.4 out of 10 from more than twelve thousand votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.1 from a much smaller number of voters.