Directed by: Valery Carnoy
Written by: Jacques Akchoti, Valery Carnoy
Starring: Samuel Kircher, Faycal Anaflous, Anna Heckel
Wild Foxes (or Le Danse de Renards) is a thoughtful, articulate French coming-of-age story. The story is set in semi-rural France in a secondary school where the students get amazing sporting and music education, and high-level performance opportunities.
Camille (Samuel Kircher), our protagonist, is a brilliant boxer who his coach and headteacher are nurturing to compete an international level. But when his chance to compete is threatened and Camille’s outlook on his life changes, leaving both his friends and the adults who look after him perplexed, the story unfolds in unexpected ways.
Wild Foxes is really elegantly written, even containing symbolism: foxes, which Camille is a fan of, appear throughout the film as part of the ecology of the school grounds, at one point being hunted due to neighbour complaints.
The symbolism is hard to miss, as in various cultures, foxes represent cunning and cleverness as well as adaptability and creativity, which are the attributes Camille needs for sporting success. Throughout the story, he is engulfed by crisis: in his performance, his friendships (which at various points turn violent), and his own understanding of what he really wants, in what is an incisive portrayal of the struggles of sporting potential and high performance at an extremely young age when the personal sacrifice may be too high a cost to pay- this is the cross roads we find our character in. In particular, the presence of Yas (Anna Heckel), a student in the same school who is both sporty and musical, and the only female character, harmonises brilliantly across the story, giving Camille a sense of perspective.
Technically, the film is graceful and almost understated. Containing brilliant moving shots in the boxing and dressing room scenes, serene wide shots of the school woods, incisive close-ups, and one particular extreme wide shot of Camille and Yas on a rooftop as he films Yas for an audition to an orchestra as a trumpet player, which I would highlight.
“You succeed, I succeed, it’s the same thing.” Matteo (Faycal Anaflous), Camille’s best friend, tells him at the start of the film as they train together. The strength of their bond is tested to the limits throughout the film, but this phrase encapsulates nicely what Wild Foxes is about: friendships, the first romantic feelings, personal ambition, and our own emotional health as we reach the end of childhood. How we balance these, and the support we get from the adults in our lives, sets us up for life and defines how far we can keep the danger of self-sabotage. Wild Foxes handles this premise with depth and consideration.
WILD FOXES is in cinemas 1 May 2026.