New Mercedes-Benz film gently mocks "fauxmotional" fashion monologues

For all the fashion world’s beauty and prestige – both in the clothes and those who wear them – it really can be a little daft sometimes. In fashion films in particular the seriousness, the peculiar facial expressions and the melodrama are rife for a gentle, affectionate ribbing: a route that director Danny Sangra took in his refreshing and brilliant Fashion Creatives film for Mercedes-Benz, A Fistful of Wolves.

The surreal title (a subtle nod to fashion films that grasp their perfectly manicured fingers at the world of cinema, perhaps) is indicative of what unfolds in Danny’s brilliant short. We meet our protagonist ahead of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin, feeling “like a lion caught between two pandas.” He cruises the streets at night in his 1970 Mercedes-Benz C111 concept car for no apparent reason other than “because it’s more stylish” than in daylight, and navigates a world in which fashion cliches are exploited for both their silliness and the aesthetic beauty they offer.

“When I started making films I mainly made fashion films,” Danny tells us. “There would be fashion film events and everyone who had come from a more traditional film background would typically walk out with a ‘What the f*ck was that’ look on their face. Then I saw everyone within that wave evolve from making purely visually pleasing or avant garde art pieces into more narrative structures.”

As such, the light mockery comes from a tender, knowing place. Danny says: “This film was a nice way for me to play around with those earlier fashion films and the films I’ve been making over the past few years. Being able to poke fun at the complete bizarreness it can be.” He adds: “this was the perfect chance to use it as a framework for a bigger idea. One that poked fun at a ‘fauxmotional’ fashion monologue.”

Danny drew inspiration from the Chanel No.5 advert with Brad Pitt, the Martin Scorsese-directed Bleu De Chanel advert and “a bunch of 80s Calvin Klein ads that had a similar type vibe,” and chose to cast a number of non-actors in the film including its star, mytheresa.com buying director Justin O’Shea, his partner and style editor Veronika Heilbrunner, brothers Gabe and Raffi Chipperfield and Julia Knolle, former online editor-at-large at Vogue Germany.

“I was worried at first because it’s a film where they play themselves, but it’s a fictional piece,” says Danny. “They understood straight away the vibe of the film. It made working with them very easy…It was also nice knowing that no matter what happened, they would at least look great.”

This film is the third in Mercedes Benz’s Fashion Creatives series, which brings different creatives together to collaborate on unique shorts. Keep your eyes peeled for when more of the films are released later this year. For more information, visit the Mercedes-Benz page.