Sameh Alaa Creates 'S the Wolf' After Father's Stroke, Revisiting 1 Family Battle Over Hair
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Sameh Alaa Creates 'S the Wolf' After Father's Stroke, Revisiting 1 Family Battle Over Hair
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Summary
Sameh Alaa says his father’s stroke pushed him to make “S the Wolf,” an animated film meant to help them laugh together while revisiting their strained father-son history.
The film centers on a long-running conflict over Alaa’s hair, which grew from a shared childhood haircut into a symbol of adolescent pressure, conformity and unspoken tension.
Alaa writes that making the film let him turn shame and uncertainty into something shareable, using animation to approach emotions he had rarely voiced directly.
The essay frames “S the Wolf” as both a personal reconciliation effort and a broader invitation for viewers to recognize shared family conflicts and humor inside emotional heaviness.