Wolf Bells

The taut latest from Zumas (Red Clocks) traces the complex dynamics of an intentional community, where two children find refuge from child protective services. Former punk musician Caz has turned her ancestral house into a financially precarious group home, where elderly residents including her dementia-afflicted mother cohabitate with younger folks like her former bandmate Vara, who uses a wheelchair and serves as the house’s nurse. When 13-year-old Nola and her autistic younger cousin, James, show up at the house, Caz decides to help them hide after Nola claims that James got the wounds on his wrists while in CPS custody. Marika, a prickly Jewish Greek Holocaust survivor, takes quickly to James, who reminds her of her brother. After a couple of days, the household finds a new rhythm to accommodate the children, and they resist pressure from a pastor neighbor who catches onto their clandestine sheltering of the kids and suggests a member of his congregation could foster them. As Zumas subtly unwraps Caz’s motivations for establishing the house and reveals her hidden connection to the children, the story builds to an oblique but powerful meditation on the comfort and instability of found family. This packs a punch. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, Gernert Co. (Sept.)