Time Of The Wolf

The post-apocalyptic world of Time of the Wolf is never explained, but becomes all the more hypnotic for it. A mother (Isabelle Huppert, I Heart Huckabees, 8 Femmes) struggles to keep her teenage daughter and young son alive after a social collapse of unknown causes. The family, accompanied by a semi-feral teenage boy, finds a train station where other survivors have collected in an uneasy alliance. Time of the Wolf doesn't have much of a story, but its depiction of human behavior at the breaking point is stark and convincing. The always compelling Huppert and director Michael Haneke previously worked together on The Piano Teacher; Time of the Wolf lacks that movie's psychological focus, but it creates a dark world through simple but evocative means. Also featuring Beatrice Dalle (Betty Blue) and Olivier Gourmet (The Son). --Bret Fetzer