Wild Foxes
A moving Belgian drama about a talented young boxer who, following a traumatic accident, struggles with panic attacks and is soon ostracised by his teammates. A film about vulnerability in a hyper-masculine environment.
Seventeen-year-old Camille is the ‘leader’ of a group of boxers at an elite French sports boarding school for teenage athletes. Not because he wants to be, but simply because he is the best boxer. Together with his best friend Matteo, he regularly sneaks into the woods to feed meat stolen from the kitchen to the wild foxes roaming the area.
On one of these outings, he falls off a cliff and is narrowly rescued by Matteo. The accident and his friendship with a 17-year-old girl who practises taekwondo and plays classical music on her trumpet, cause Camille’s view of himself and his career as a boxer to shift. This immediately affects his standing within the group. It is as if his fellow boxers can sense that he is fair game.
Wild Foxes captures the group dynamics of adolescents perfectly. The use of the videos the boys make themselves, fuelled by overflowing testosterone, works wonderfully here. It is impressive how the director strikes the right balance between toughness and gentleness, between violence and tenderness. No wonder the film won him two awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
Written by JC