The Wolfpack documentary tells the story of the six Angulo brothers who lived their whole lives inside an isolated Manhattan apartment. According to Entertainment Weekly, confining the boys in the four-bedroom apartment was their father Oscar Angulo’s way of keeping them away from the city’s corrupt influence. The brothers lived in confinement for 14 years in the Lower East Side apartment.
Director Crystal Moselle worked with the Angulo brothers, namely Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana, Mukunda, Krsna, and Jagadisa, for years for her feature The Wolfpack. Moselle first met the six brothers in 2010 in the East Village. Their first encounter happened only a week after the Angulo brothers had started leaving their apartment. Before that, in April of that year, 15-year-old Mukunda Angula was the first to escape against Oscar’s orders. They eventually began interacting with the up-and-coming director.
According to The New York Times, after their encounter with Moselle, the Angulo brothers eventually began interacting with her. The filmmaker took four-and-a-half years to film The Wolfpack, which is about the brothers’ unusual upbringing. They have since ventured into their individual lives, finding jobs, making girlfriends, and traveling, among other things.
The New York Times’ 2015 report stated that Bhagavan took up dancing in Midtown’s Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory and taught Jivamukti yoga. Govinda became a camera assistant and photography director after leaving home. He worked for Vice Media and only did freelance jobs at the time. Narayana was a film production assistant at Vice Media and also worked with the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Elsewhere, Mukunda released a short film titled Mirror Art, per The Guardian. Meanwhile, Jagadesh and Krsna went on to change their names to Eddie and Glenn, in pursuit of their dreams of becoming musicians.
Following its premiere in 2015, The Wolfpack received a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
What happened to The Wolfpack’s Angulo Brothers?
The Wolfpack tells the story of the six Angulo brothers and life in confinement. Their father, Oscar Angulo, kept them isolated in a Manhattan apartment for years. After witnessing the crime and violence in New York when he first moved there, Oscar decided to keep his children away from the city’s hostile surroundings. Their mother, Susanne, home-schooled them and claimed she “felt like I didn’t have control over my choices,” reported The New York Times.
Per the outlet, the Angulo family lived secluded from the world in their four-bedroom apartment. It was located on the 16th floor of a public housing complex in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The New York Post stated that since Oscar was now allowed to work in the US, their only source of income was the money Susanne received from the state added with the food stamps. Moreover, The Wolfpack brothers’ domineering father was the only one who left the apartment for food occasionally.
The children grew up watching movies ranging from classics to blockbusters and even indies. The New York Times reported that Mukunda Angulo was the first to make an escape in April 2010. He wore a Michael Myers mask, which soon got him in trouble with the police. Authorities then took the 15-year-old to the Bellevue Hospital Center. He returned home after a week. Months later, all six Angula brothers began stepping out of the apartment against their father’s orders.
Describing their life in the apartment, Narayana spoke about the vast collection of movies they had watched during the years of confinement. According to The New York Post, he said, “As far as movies went, we had all the freedom in the world.”
BBC stated that Govinda Angulo said Oscar had “warned” them that “everyone was out to get us.” Their father convinced them that they couldn’t “let our guard down” because “the world was hostile. In fact everyone we’ve met has been so nice; that’s been the biggest surprise about our new lives.”
Govinda added that Oscar did not let them leave at all during “the year of 9/11.” He said, “I think that event really confirmed all my father’s worst fears about the world, and it happened on our doorstep. But everyone I have met has been so kind.”
The Post reported that Mukunda claimed that when they began leaving the apartment, they “did mostly tourist stuff.” This involved going to “museums, or on ferries, or Central Park.” He said, “We never took the subway, though. Our father said it was dangerous and that there’s always crime down there.”
The brothers often dressed up every time they left the apartment. In one such outing, they donned Reservoir Dogs suits and sunglasses. Mukunda added that they “would stick together when we were out on the streets because we wouldn’t want each other to get lost. We were just learning the structure of New York. We would always guide ourselves to First Avenue, because the streets there are very easy to go by.”
Eventually, within months after Mukunda’s great escape, the Angulo brothers met Crystal Moselle in 2010, per BBC. According to the 2015 report, Moselle said “All of them have been in the outside world now for nearly five years” since they first met. She added, “I think in their case, isolation has unleashed their creativity. They’ve had all this time and they’ve learned to be meticulous and patient.”
In 2016, ABC News reported that The Wolfpack brothers’ mother, Susanne, was still married to Oscar Angulo at the time. Two brothers moved out of that apartment while the others continued to live in the apartment they grew up in. An episode of ABC’s 20/20 also looked into the infamous case.
