Seven children. One apartment. One rule: No going outside, ever.
Imagine growing up in America’s most populated city but barely having contact with the outside world.
This was a reality for seven children confined to their Lower East Side Apartment in New York, New York. And if you’re desperate to know what the hell that’s like, you’re in luck — a hugely successful doco called The Wolfpack takes you right smack-bang into their very confined lives. It just won the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Festival.
Here’s the family.
The Angulo children — brothers Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana, Mukunda, Krisna and Jagadesh and sister Visny — lived together their whole lives. They were only allowed to leave the apartment a handful of times each year.
One year, they didn’t venture outside at all.
That’s 365 days inside a small apartment with all your siblings. Trapped, home-schooled, and probably suffering from a form of existential claustrophobia we can’t even imagine.
They had no friends and no proper contact with the outside world. Their only real interaction with other humans weas watching films.
To entertain themselves, the Angulo brothers would occasionally venture outside to re-enact scenes from their favourite movies, like Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects. Here they are, dressed like the gang from Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs.
During one of these rare occasions the brothers — then aged 11 to 18 — met a young film director, Crystal Moselle, who befriended them, and, over a four-year period, filmed the documentary during visits to their home.