Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival 2008

While humans may be at the head of the food chain, there exists in the wild signs of intelligence and even emotion that suggest our fellow creatures understand trust, loyalty and family on a much deeper level.

Producer-turned-Director Gilles Legrand (“Malabar Princess”) returns to the French Alps for The Maiden and the Wolves. This Gallic yarn stars French actress and supermodel, Laetitia Casta, as Angele, a feisty Edwardian-era femme whose fate becomes entangled with that of the last wild wolf pack on Mont Blanc.

Not long before World War I, in a French Alpine town near the Italian border, a pack of slaughtered wolves is delivered to local taxidermist Leon (Patrick Chesnais). A surviving black cub comes down from the mountains looking for his family, and is saved from discovery and certain death by young daughter, Angele, who releases him back into the wild.

Years later, a gypsy woman lives up on the mountain (Elisa Tovati) with her son Guiseppe (Stefano Accorsi), who guards the wolves he's befriended up there, especially the black pack leader he calls Carbone.

Now grown, Angele wants to become a veterinarian specializing in wild animals, and she hooks up with circus owner Zhormov (Miglen Mirtchev), who's keen to capture a wolf from the mountains above her hometown. But Zhormov's plane crashes in the snow and he must leave an injured Angele behind while seeking help. Recognizing her smell from his days as a pup, Carbone rescues her with his pack, and she falls into the care of Guiseppe.

Legrand's directing rattles along at a breathless clip and the film is a visual treat. Movies like White Fang and Call of the Wild also focus on a theme about the bonding between humans and wolves and this story reminds us that we are all members of a pack, and that our wild brethren embody this concept on the most primal level.

Please note: Online ticket sales end 24 hours before each event. Tickets may still be available for purchase at the venue.