Valery Carnoy launches his feature debut with a crisp, intimate look at boxing’s teenage battlers at a French sports academy. The film follows Camille, the program’s rising star, and Matteo, his impulsive best friend, as they chase a shared dream in the ring.
The project earned early acclaim, arriving at Cannes in 2025 with a prize that underscored its promise as a coming-of-age drama.
The real test comes when Camille takes a near-fatal tumble in the woods during a training run with Matteo. A piercing scream punctuates the moment, and Matteo’s timely intervention saves him—yet the accident sows phantom pains and crippling nerves about the future in the ring.
Sam Kircher plays Camille with a quiet, searching core, while Anna Heckel’s Yas offers a steadying, empathetic foil. The filmmakers lean on natural light and handheld camerawork to pull the audience into the boys’ world, balancing intimate tenderness with a thread of danger.
Pierre Desprats’s score swells in key sequences and softens in calmer exchanges, reinforcing the film’s tonal duality. Carnoy refuses easy moralizing, instead sketching a nuanced portrait of loyalty, vulnerability, and resilience among adolescents in a competitive sport.
Wild Foxes establishes an assured, humane debut that lingers beyond the final bell, inviting viewers to feel the push and pull between brutality and care that shapes growing up.
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