The suburban lawns of North America have their roots in the 17th-century English aristocracy, for whom they represented public displays of immense wealth: “We have so much land that we can afford to grow nothing on it.”  Wolf Ruck, an octogenarian former Olympic athlete, recognizes the ecological tragedy behind what has become a 21st-century cultural norm. But when he decides to do something about it, it gets him into trouble with his neighbors in Mississauga, and with the law.  In Wolf’s story, filmmaker Amélie Hardy recognized a Kafkaesque narrative, infused with irony and quiet resistance. Her award-winning short doc pays tribute to Wolf’s courage in challenging a standardized vision of the world, where the illusion of control and order prevails over ecological responsibility.

Amélie Hardy
After studying film, Amélie made her mark with short films featured at SXSW, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Hot Docs, and more. Her cinematic voice blends humanity, aesthetics, and inventive storytelling, crafting a unique artistic signature that brings reality to the screen with depth and vision. Her short doc A Wolf in the Suburbs had its world premiere at SXSW and received the Canadian Grand Prize and Fipresci Awards at the Regard Festival in Quebec in 2026.