Boxing films are a penny a dozen and have been since the birth of cinema, or at least since the talks. It is a genre that offers an instant gratuity – because what is more visceral and entertaining than looking at two people fight on the screen on the screen?
Bringing something original to the genre is much more difficult, which is why the Belgian screenwriter-director Valéry Carnoy deserves congratulations for having made his feature film, Wild foxes (Fox dance), Suffer from your slugfest typical of testosterone.
Wild foxes
The bottom line
A captivating and distinctive sporting film.
Place: Cannes Film Festival (Directors’ Fortnight)
Casting: Samuel Kircher, Fayçal Anaflous, Jef Jacobs, Anna Heckel, Jean-Baptiste Durant, Hassane Alili, Salahdine El Garchi
Director, screenwriter: Valéry Carnoy
1 hour 32 minutes
It stages the action in a very special location: an elite French Sports-studies Bunching at school where adolescent athletes are selected to train throughout their high school years. The public institution seems to weigh as strongly on young combatants as all the punches they take in the ring, leading them towards acts of despair or self-sabotage when they try to become pros.
Wild foxes Add an intriguing turn to the sports film model from adulthood, which he adheres otherwise completely docile. His 17 -year -old hero, Camille – played with a tender intensity of Samuel Kircher – is the best fighter in his age group, the one who has the most prospects for representing France at the Olympic Games one day. But a minor injury ends up doing it doing it unexpectedly, making Camille question the brutality of his job, and if there is more things in life than becoming the next Marcel Cerdan (for those who know the big French boxing).
His surprising trajectory of the dreaded pugilist to parias described guides a film which questions the violence that Camille commits in the ring, as well as which committed against him by his classmates, including the best friend and combat partner, Matteo (Fayçal Anaflous).
When we meet them for the first time, the two are like clean peas in a pod, training all day together, making Tiktok Barechestes videos with LBF teammates (Jef Jacobs), Nasserdine (Hassan Alili) and Coreb (Salahdine El Garchi), working hard but playing hard. When they do not make 10 km runs or do not hit the bag on request from their coach, Bogdan (Jean-Baptiste Durand), Camille and Matteo sneak towards the forest near the school, nourishing stolen meat to wander the foxes hiding in the brush.
During one of their excursions, Camille falls from a cliff and almost kills herself, walking away rather miraculously with only a nasty cut on her right arm. Soon, he is ready to hand over the gloves, but for any reason, he cannot escape the trauma caused by his accident. He begins to feel ghost pain, refusing to fight or train, while the panic attacks keep him all night. At the same time, he meets a girl, Yas (Anne Heckel), who trains in Taekwondo but has other interests, especially by playing classical music on a trumpet.
The dangerous fall and its consequences push Camille – that we have learned has been boxing since he was 8 years old, stimulated by a violent father – to open up to new experiences beyond the ring. It would normally be a good thing, except that in the competitive pressure cooker of a Sports-studies Program, students should operate at extremely high levels. The other boxers, in particular Rivaux LBF, are starting to feel in Camille for not having brought his weight with the team, which leads to a gap between the young champion and the best Bud Matteo.
Carnoy maintains things quite fascinating from start to finish, swiveling the drama with attacks of violence and moments of respite, during which we are withdrawing in the massive forest adjacent to school. Some of the points of the plot may seem a little elaborate, including a fox hunt that makes its way in the third act without warning. But the director maintains a solid level of realistic tension, sticking alongside Camille while the boy takes a lot of blows, but also throws a lot, heading towards a form of self -realization.
Back to Cannes with two films (this one and The girl in the snow) after making her debut in Catherine Breillat Last summer In 2023, Kircher – son of actress Irène Jacob and brother of actor Paul Kircher (The animal kingdom) – Carries the film convincingly. It may seem vulnerable and as in certain scenes, barely capable of standing or defending oneself, while in others, it may seem brutal and explosive.
It is this dichotomy that Wild foxes Constantly explore, in search of parallels between young boxers who fight for their future and animals that fight to survive in the woods nearby. Both live in a ruthless world where, like Camille, you can suddenly go from hunter to hunt. The question that the film finally poses is whether a third way is possible, leading to a captivating final fight which is much less a Knockout than a bitter victory.
