An introduction to The Wolves Always Come at Night
Notes from an introduction to The Wolves Always Come at Night (Brady2024) by Terri Allen at our screening in March 2026. Our audience gave this film 3.8 stars.
Documentary / drama
Each season at Films at The Bundy, we try to include the genres of documentary and Australian film in our selection. The Wolves Always Come at Night fits both these categories.
The Wolves Always Come at Night is a 2024 docu-drama or docu-fiction, written and directed by Gabrielle Brady. Gabrielle is a young Australian director, and this film is a production form Australia, Germany and Mongolia. She spent time in Mongolia in her twenties and returned to revisit the people she had met. This is Gabrielle’s second feature film, and it was selected as the Australian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.
The script was co-written by the director and the Mongolian couple who star in the film: Davaasuren Dagvasuren and Otgonzaya Dashzeveg. The film has a universal theme, but told from the point of view of a Mongolian herder family. The story follows the lives of Davaa and Zaya as they struggle with the impact of a changing environment on their way of life. The dialogue, the silences, the intimacy, the landscape, the soundscapes - these all help tell the story.
Mongolian context
I was struck by how little I knew about Mongolia, and this docu-drama does not lecture nor try to cram us with facts. I had lots of questions after watching it, and perhaps I can give you just a couple of the answers to my questions while not spoiling the film for you at all.
Ulaanbaata is the capital of Mongolia and has a population today of about 1.7 million. It is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature with very long dry winters. The coldest January temperatures are between −36 and −40 °C . The city is located in north central Mongolia at an elevation of about 1,300 metres in a valley on the Tuul River. Modern urban planning began in Ulaanbaatar] the 1950s, with most of the old ger districts replaced by Soviet-style flats. Ger refers to the traditional nomadic herdsmen home (other neighbouring countries call these types of homes yurts). Since 1990, as Mongolia transitioned to a market economy, an influx of migrants from the rest of the country has led to the city’s growth with most migrants settling in the ger districts. Two-thirds of the city's inhabitants live in these areas.
Mongolia shares the same problems of many countries on our fragile planet. In the country, desertification is changing the way of life for the herders; in the capital city air pollution (driven by the simple coal stoves of the ger district and coal fire power plants) affects the population’s health.
I hope you enjoy the quiet drama of this lovely film
Further reading
The home and life of Mongolian nomadic herders - WWF Asia Pacific Exposure, 26 Aug 2021
The Wolves Always Come at Night Review: Universality in Mongolia’s Countryside - Rachel Ho, POV Magazine, 14 Sep 2024
The Wolves Always Come at Night review - melancholy meditation on a lost way of life - Phuong Le, The Guardian, 30 Dec 2024
‘It was very hard to see myself as a director’: the Australian film-maker changing the documentary genre - Andy Hazel, The Guardian, 30 Jun 2025
Oscars: Australia Submits The Wolves Always Come At Night For Best International Feature Film Race - Melanie Goodfellow, 23 Sep 2025
How Composer Aaron Cupples Crafted an Original Soundscape for The Wolves Always Come at Night - ProductionHUB, 29 Jan 2026