Wolf, wolf

Wolf, Wolf is a searing investigation into the relationship between a father and a son – a young man who is ill-equipped for survival in a rapidly changing dispensation. Passionate. Disturbing. A masterly unravelling of fragile ties that bind – this is Venter at the top of his game.

He presses the button to activate the screen of the CCTV system: two sharp-pointed ears. A dog – except that a dog doesn’t reach that high. He keeps pressing the button and peers at the blue-grey night scene of the pavement and section of road covered by the cameras at the gate. The dog’s head, larger than normal and wolf-like, stares straight at him. There’s something about the hairiness of the dog hairs and the oddly impassive gaze of the dark pin-hole eyes that doesn’t look quite right. And where’s the rest of the dog-creature’s body? He knows who it is before the deliberately hoarse voice comes over the intercom. “Matt,” says the dog-mouth, “it’s me. Please open up.” Mattheüs Duiker, only son of Benjamin Duiker, opens the gate of the family’s Cape Town mansion to his lover, Jack. The intimate space where Matt is waiting for his father to die is fatefully invaded by a wolf-like creature. Shiny-eyed at the prospect of a new life for themselves, the two young men sneak past the study where Matt’s blind father, melancholy and suspicious, lies listening for the footfall of death. Wolf, Wolf is a searing investigation into the relationship between a father and a son – a young man who is ill-equipped for survival in a rapidly changing dispensation. Passionate. Disturbing. A masterly unravelling of fragile ties that bind – this is Venter at the top of his game.