Jun 11, 2026 6:04pm IST
Kabir Khan’s ‘The Wolf’ Marks His Documentary Return after Two Decades, Premieres on June 13 (EXCLUSIVE)
Directed by the filmmaking duo of Wancheng Gu and Prasad Sudhakar Shetty, “The Wolf” is an observational documentary following Yuan, a 60-year-old queer former village mayor in Shanghai, as she navigates love, family obligations, and shifting economic landscapes. Delving deeply into themes of LGBTQIA+ visibility, feminist resilience, aging, and contemporary Chinese culture, the film delivers a rare, universal perspective on autonomy and reinvention later in life.
Renowned director Kabir Khan (“Bajrangi Bhaijaan,” “83,” “Kabul Express”), who began his career in documentaries, serves as a producer and creative sounding board for the project. Ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, Kabir Khan, in an exclusive interview with Variety India, speaks about what brought him back to the documentary space, the layers of contemporary society and the inspiring resilience of the film’s protagonist.
What about ‘The Wolf’ drew you back to the documentary space?
I began my journey as a storyteller through documentaries, and documentaries were a very enriching part of my career. They gave me not only the ability to travel all over the world to more than 80 countries, but they also gave me a worldview. It gave me the ability to recognize human stories and see them in the socio-political context. Those are the tools that I then started using in mainstream cinema when I came to Mumbai. Ever since my journey into mainstream cinema, I wanted to go back and do one more documentary. I’d often been asked in interviews, ‘Will you ever go back to documentaries?’ I would always say yes, but I wasn’t putting my money where my mouth was. And so, when my friends Prasad and Mancheng from Shanghai, narrated this story and said they wanted to make this as a documentary, I jumped at it. I’m glad they gave me the opportunity to get back to a documentary, though in this, it was as a producer, it was more like a sounding board, a creative sounding board for them, a support system for them. But I was very much part of that whole process, and happy that the film has been made. It’s out there. And, you know, our opening outing is at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival. And the world premiere happens on June 13.
Your stories are usually about people navigating political, cultural, or social divides. Did you see thematic parallels between ‘The Wolf’ and some of your own films?
That’s right, my stories have always been about navigating the political and social landscape of our societies and ‘The Wolf’ is definitely in that same sweet spot. When I heard the story, what resonated with me most was Yuan’s sheer resilience. She faces enormous pressures and yet moves forward with such remarkable courage, which is hugely inspiring. There’s something deeply moving about watching someone refusing to give up on themselves, even when circumstances seem determined to limit their choices. Her story feels both very specific to her life and also so universally human. And those are always the kind of stories that I get drawn towards.
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The film follows Yuan, a 60-year-old queer former village mayor navigating love, family obligations, and economic uncertainty. Were there any moments in the documentary that surprised you or changed your own perception of contemporary China?
While recording Yuan’s journey, there were so many surprises, and in a certain sense, we learned about China and the Chinese society. What really surprised me was the complexity of the world in the film. We often look at countries through simplistic narratives, but documentaries like this one are a reminder that every society contains countless realities, contradictions and so many layers. The film offers an intimate glimpse into lives that are rarely ever represented on screen. And that perspective challenges many assumptions people may have about contemporary China. It really opened up a whole new insight into China for me.
One of the most striking aspects of the film is that its protagonist is discovering freedom and reinvention at 60. If viewers walk away remembering just one thing from ‘The Wolf,’ what would you hope that is?
Age is just a number, and that is so true when it comes to Yuan and the attitude with which she lives. It’s about how she grabs the second innings or the second chapter of her life and tries to live it on her own terms. That’s what makes the journey so interesting. If viewers walk away remembering just one thing from ‘Wolf,’ I hope it’s Yuan. More specifically, I just hope they remember her audacity to keep finding her own path regardless of the obstacles in front of her. She navigates incredibly complex situations with a poker face, but she does so without any sort of overthinking, without resorting to defeatism and without being held back by self-doubt that all of us face so much in our lives. I found her ability to see possibilities where others might only see setbacks remarkable. There is something deeply inspiring about that spirit and it is what makes a story so memorable and universal.
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