Werewolf

Summer 1945 brings a makeshift refuge for eight children freed from the Gross-Rosen camp. In a deserted palace ringed by trees, Hanka, a former inmate, takes on the role of guardian. After the camp's horrors, the children try to reclaim a sense of childhood, but the past keeps intruding. Roaming the woods outside are Alsatian soldiers who were released by the SS and have since grown feral and hungry. They close in on the palace hoping for food, and the children's fragile safety is shattered, forcing them to improvise, fight, and survive in a world that seems to have forgotten them.

Released in 2019 in Poland, Werewolf is directed by Adrian Panek from an original screenplay. The film comes with a deliberately lean budget of around 130,000 dollars and a stark, camera driven look that emphasizes isolation and fear. Panek takes a risk by focusing on the psychology of trauma and the dynamics inside a small group rather than on big effects, giving the war setting an unusually intimate and unnerving feel. Leading performances come from Nicolas Przygoda, Kamil Polnisiak, Sonia Mietielica, and Danuta Stenka, who anchor the uneasy dynamics in the palace.

Box office details are not widely published for this title, reflecting its art house footprint and festival run across several countries. Its commercial numbers aren’t readily available, but the film has attracted attention from genre audiences and critics who seek out stark wartime horror.

Critics praise the film for its austere atmosphere and the way it zeroes in on memory and survival after deep trauma. The story treats innocence as a fragile resource and shows how fear can tighten a group into a makeshift family while yielding hard moral choices. Some viewers may find the pacing abrupt, but others see this restraint as the point of its grim realism.