#29: How a Batman Movie Helped The Wolfpack Escape

Mukunda and Bhagavan fell hard for The Dark Knight.  And it was this film – about a man who dresses up as a giant bat that – that inspired them to leave their apartment. “After I saw The Dark Knight, that made me believe that something was possible to happen,” says Mukunda. “Not because it was Batman, but because it felt like another world.”

Oscar Angulo, the siblings’ father, was strict at home. For years, he didn’t let them leave their apartment on their own – on the rare occasion when they went out as a family, the kids were told not to speak to anyone. The internet was also off limits. But he loved movies, so he recorded tons on VHS and brought home lots of DVDs – about 5,000 films total.  The siblings would watch the same films over and over.  And, after fiercely debating their collective Top 40, they decided to start recreating some of them.

“We always say lines from our favorite films and we thought, why don’t we do those films, be the characters,” Mukunda says. Without a computer or even a typewriter, he had to handwrite all of the individual scripts. “It took me a week to write Goodfellas; it took me a week to write The Dark Knight; about five to write The Dark Knight Rises; two to write Batman Begins. Writing that and hurting your hand – I mean it’s torture – but seeing the result is everything.” They even drew movie posters and hosted makeshift opening nights.

The siblings now star in their very own film – albeit a documentary.  The Wolfpack, directed by Crystal Moselle, won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Moselle first encountered the kids on one of their very first unsupervised forays out of their apartment. She took them to an internet café where Mukunda used the internet for the first time. “I just googled The Dark Knight and found out stuff I had no idea existed about it,” he says. “That’s the first thing I googled. I’ll never forget it.”