Wild Foxes: Review by Ilo Tuule Rajand

Boys Who Burn Bright, Fall. Thump. Ache.

By Ilo Tuule Rajand

Wild Foxes follows young boxer Camille as friendship, pain, and ambition twist into something feral. When a near-fatal injury forces him into stillness, the wildness that once defined him begins to fade. Bodies bite and burn, thump and ache — Belgian director Valéry Carnoy’s debut feature feels like a throbbing pulse under the skin. Every frame sweats. Every movement stings.

A pulsating want echoes through the corridors of a French sports academy, where pain is both worshipped and weaponised. In fast-cut montages of sparring, training, and chaos, Carnoy captures the electricity of boyhood on the brink: smelly socks, laughter, rivalry, and the constant sound of fists meeting flesh. The young boxer at the story’s centre (Samuel Kircher) has the makings of a champion and the blind faith of his best friend Matteo (Faycal Anaflous). The two move like parts of the same body— Matteo’s steadiness fuelling Camille’s spark, Camille’s charisma feeding Matteo’s devotion.

Outside the gym, the boys perform their own little ritual by hanging slabs of raw meat on a tree in the forest, waiting for wild foxes to emerge. It’s part dare, part devotion, a way to summon the wildness they so often glorify. The fox becomes a mirror— a leitmotif that contextualises Camille’s journey. When a serious injury forces him to face his fears, that wildness slips away from him. The boy who danced through pain is now consumed by it. His body, once a weapon, becomes a battleground.

In a place where endurance is holy and vulnerability heresy, Camille’s pain is treated like a stain. Matteo turns cold. Envy seeps in like sweat, invisible at first, then impossible to wash off. Coaches look away. The system that raised him demands that he stay unbroken or disappear. The only one who doesn’t push him to fight is Yas (Anna Heckel), a taekwondo student whose steady presence hums with content. Her passion is not defined by winning and opens up another kind of rhythm, one where strength isn’t glorified by scars. Yet the world that forged Camille refuses to let go. Like a fox caught in a snare, he’s trapped, gnawed by shame, hunted by his peers, bleeding silently into the soil.

Emotions are sharpened through sound and texture. Gloves slap and breath rattles like wind against metal. Themes collide like sparring partners: youth, pain, loyalty, wildness. It’s messy, feverish, but alive. In the opening shot, Camille stands wild-eyed in the ring, tongue out, fists flying, exultantly throwing punches to the opponent’s liver. By the end, he’s still standing. Triumphant but swollen and cautious, fighting not to dominate but to survive. Wild Foxes doesn’t preach redemption. It watches a young man lose and regain his wildness, showing that real strength may also flourish from surrender.

Director: Valéry Carnoy
Writer: Valéry Carnoy
Cast: Fayçal Anaflous, Jef Jacobs, Anna Heckel, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Hassane Alili, Salahdine El Garchi.
Running Time: 92 min.
Country: Belgium, France
Year: 2025

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