Police pursue a pregnant woman across a snowcovered 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, which remains central to the little girl's life. However, she sees her mother rarely 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). Vassily Sigarev, whose feature debut is an adaptation of his own theater play, has set this harrowing story of indifference in a timeless space that, moreover, lacks a concrete physical location. "In my plays, I try never to say 'this is what it's about. Let viewers decide for themselves. I just hope that the story tells them something new about love and its absence, about evil - and about their own souls." Karlovy Vary FF