Documentaries can be straightforward sometimes or they can be a little off the wall. Every once in a while you get a doc that tells a story that’s so incredible it is too good to be true. Misha and the Wolves is a little bit of all of this combined. I don’t know how the filmmakers heard of this story. I didn’t hear about it before I saw this film.
The gist of this story is that a woman who lives in Massachusetts gets a book deal with a local small publishing house after telling her story on a local radio show. Her story is that she traveled from the Netherlands to Germany on foot. While traveling she befriended a pack of wolves and lived among them as a child. After a trial for the funds from the book become national news, this story takes some unexpected twists nobody could see coming.
The film takes place in seven or so different segments with titles such as the publisher, the genealogist, or the private investigator. Each segment introduces new characters and a new side to this wild story, the next crazier than the last. The talking heads say all kinds of things that are not easy to believe. At one point it’s a story of he-said-she-said. You just don’t know who to believe.
This film reminds me of Three Identical Strangers from a few years ago. It had a similar story that was too crazy to believe. Misha is a woman that you just don’t know if you could believe or not. There are a lot of people capable of telling tall tales. It has happened for years now. If some tell a story you’re programmed to believe what they say, so why should people not believe Misha when she tells such an incredible story?
She got so much acclaim off of the book and impending trial that she was able to get a movie made of her story. Misha and the Wolves was made into a film by a French production company and came out in 2007. Disney even tried to buy the rights to this story. The telltale sign that all of this could have been made up is when Misha turned down Oprah and her book club. You would think she’d be through the moon about being on Oprah, but she wasn’t.
This film has a lot of interesting plot points and twists and turns in it. The filmmakers keep you on your feet the entire time watching this film. Misha is a fascinating person… or is she? That’s what they are trying to get at. Is this story so hard to believe it’s unbelievable or is all these talking heads that show up at various points in the film a bunch of liars themselves? That’s for the viewer to determine themselves. And they are brought on an incredible ride in the process.
3 1/2 stars
Dan Skip Allen
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Sean Boelman
Founder/EIC disappointment media
From the Fourth Row! 