Empire of the Wolves

Empire of the Wolves, or L'Empire des loups in the original French, is a 2005 film directed by Chris Nahon, starring French action star Jean Reno, as well as Arly Jover, and Jocelyn Quivrin. It was written by a sextet of individuals: Christian Clavier, Jean-Christophe Grangé, Chris Nahon, Franck Ollivier, Luc Bossi and Simon Michaël. Empire of the Wolves premiered in France on April 20th, going on to become a part of the München Fantasy Film Fest in Munich, Germany, where it was screened on July 30th. The film is loosely based upon a thriller novel of the same name which was also written by Jean-Christophe Grangé, one of the six writers for the silver screen version. Filming sites included Göreme, Cappadocia; Instanbul, Turkey; and Paris, France. The film involves the amnesiac character, Anna Heymes (played by Arly Jover), a stylish Parisian housewife in her early thirties and married to a police officer. Anna experiences frightening nightmares and hallucinations pertaining to a string of heinous murders in the city. At the same time, a pair of Police Nationale, the formerly-retired and unorthodox Jean-Louis Schiffer (played Jean Reno) and the cautious officer Paul Nerteaux (played by Jocelyn Quivrin), who are working on unraveling the mystery to the killings; each victim's face was horribly mutilated. Schiffer has been retired but was recalled into service for this particular case. Schiffer and Nerteaux realize that all of the victims were immigrant Turkish females and may have possible connections to a Turkish cell of terrorists known as the Gray Wolves (hence the title of the movie; referring to a criminal empire). The plot thickens when Anna realizes that she has been modified, having racked up a lengthy list of various reconstructive surgeries. In addition to the physical reconstruction, she was subjected to hypnosis and memory repression, with the nightmares and hallucinations being nothing more than the ghosts of Anna's memories trying to come back to the surface. The purpose of which was to conceal her heritage as a Turkish individual. A chain of events escalates into a proper meeting with the Gray Wolves and with the awareness of her Turkish identity, the defeat of Anna's would-be assassin. In the end it's learned that the Gray Wolves did not commit the murders, but instead it was their leader, Ismail Kutsi, acting alone; driven by his artistic side and his sadistic obsession with the ancient Nemrut statues.