Letters from Wolf Street
Arjun Talwar / Poland & Germany / 2025 / International Premiere / 96 min
How long are you a stranger in a new country? An Indian filmmaker seeks an answer in Warsaw, in an unexpected audience favorite about nationalism and xenophobia.
Wolf Street is a street in the center of the Polish capital Warsaw. Filmmaker Arjun Talwar lives here. He immigrated to Poland 12 years ago with a friend because they loved Polish movies. One day he films his neighbor, an elderly woman who goes out on her balcony every morning to shake her sheets – a ritual they share. But when they meet on the street, she pretends they have never seen each other before.
So Arjun sets out to find out if you ever stop being a stranger in a new country. ‘Letters From Wolf Street’ is shot in one street, but it turns out to contain a whole world. With the local postman as its narrator, it is both touching and witty.
One day the rainbow flags fly over Wolf Street, the next day they are replaced by the Polish flag and white nationalists. ‘Letters from Wolf Street’ is both a loving and honest portrait of a single street, but it is also a kaleidoscopic, nuanced story about Polish society. It’s about immigration and nationalism in a country that was once occupied and fears losing its independence to outsiders. And not least, it’s about Arjun’s deep sorrow connected to the Indian friend he immigrated with 12 years earlier.