Cinephil Acquires Toronto Title ‘The Wolves Always Come at Night,’ About Herding Family in Mongolia, Clip Debuts (EXCLUSIVE)

International documentary sales firm Cinephil has acquired “The Wolves Always Come at Night” from writer-director Gabrielle Brady, which will world premiere at Toronto Film Festival in Platform Competition. Variety is debuting the first-look clip.

Cinephil has worldwide rights excluding the U.K. (BBC Storyville), Australia and New Zealand (Madman Entertainment), Germany and France (SWR/Arte), and Mongolia (Guru Media).

The hybrid narrative-documentary follows the journey of a rural sheep herding family in Mongolia who are forced to give up their way of life after an extremely brutal winter. Herders Davaasuren Dagvasuren and Otgonzaya Dashzeveg invited the film team into their personal lives as they went through this difficult transition, portraying themselves in the film and they are also credited as writers of the story.

Brady said: “The film entwines observational documentary moments with loosely composed scenarios where Daava and Zaya traverse their memories. As co-writers we have traced their experiences together.”

She added: “When I returned to Mongolia many years after having lived there I found a very different place. Old friends were now living in the city’s districts, after having been forced to leave their homelands. I remember meeting one young ex-herder who told us he had moved to the city over a decade before but that every night he dreamed only of the countryside. His dreaming life existed solely in the landscape he had left. It was as though his body had never arrived. This quiet sense of loss deeply moved me.”

Suzanne Nodale, co-managing director of Cinephil, said: “Gabrielle Brady’s ‘The Wolves Always Come at Night’ is an exceptionally beautiful film unlike anything we’ve seen. It’s an epic, personal and emotional face to the devastating consequences of climate change.”

The film is produced by Julia Niethammer of Chromosom Film, Ariunaa Tserenpil of Guru Media and Rita Walsh for Over Here.

The co-producers are Brady and Oyundari Khurelbaatar. Executive producers are Deanne Weir, Alexander Wadouh, Stefanie Plattner, Emma Hindley and Dan Cogan.

Screen Australia presents in association with Weiranderson Films, Storming Donkey Productions and with support from BBC Storyville, SWR and Arte.