For further information please download the film sheet (PDF).
Nessa and Blaise get petrol for their piece-of-junk lawn mower by stealing it from parked cars. Their makeshift lawn mowing business is hardly booming, but it’s the couple’s only source of income. They are in withdrawal, taking part in a methadone programme, and homeless. The state-sponsored therapeutic care they receive does help, but it also keeps them on a tight leash. The film neither romanticises nor exoticises the pair’s arduous daily routines; its many close-ups of everything from socks being washed to medical procedures cast their path of suffering in a more sober light. But most of all Werewolf is a relationship drama about two individuals with very different personalities. Are they stronger together, or will Nessa eventually have to let go of the hand that’s pulling her down? “It can be very threatening when someone changes”, her social worker says, trying to encourage her not to make the same bad decision again. The film tells the story of this conflict like a sad love song, with brown methadone bottles, Nessa’s hairnet, and the ever more perfect swoop of soft-serve ice cream in the cone as the refrain. (Anna Hoffmann)
Production: Grassfire Films, New Waterford
Screenplay: Ashley McKenzie
Camera: Scott Moore
Cast: Bhreagh MacNeil, Andrew Gillis, Mark Woodland, Donald Campbell
Running time: 78 min
Language: English
Photo: © Steve Wadden
