Principal photography is set to begin on Valéry Carnoy’s debut feature film, La Danse des Renards, as of 5 August. The young Belgian director and Insas graduate first turned heads with his graduate short film, Ma planète, which primarily walked away with the award for Best Short Film in the Tallinn Black Night Film Festival’s PÖFF Shorts line-up, and then with Titan, which scooped the National Grand Prize at the Brussels Short Film Festival, as well as being nominated for the Best Short Fiction Film Magritte.

Titan followed a young 13-year-old boy for the duration of an afternoon, as bigger and stronger boys force him to take part in an initiatory rite. With this first feature film, the director is continuing his exploration of young masculinities, dictates and pressure. In a sports-focused boarding school, we meet Camille, a young boxing pro who was recently crowned French champion and whose best friend Matteo recently saved him from a mortal accident. An unspoken anguish slowly overcomes Camille, to the point of calling into question his passion for boxing and his close friendship with Matteo. Meanwhile, foxes are proliferating in the forest bordering the school and begin causing trouble on the school grounds.

The part of Camille has been entrusted to a young French actor whose star is currently on the rise: Samuel Kircher, the acting revelation from Last Summer [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] which won him a nomination for the Best Male Newcomer César and whom we’ll soon be seeing in L'Engloutie. There’ll be a new face playing Matteo in the form of youngster Faycal Anaflous, who’s further joined by Belgian actor Yoann Blanc (recently seen in the series Pandora, 1985 [+leggi anche:
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scheda series] and The Crown) and French filmmaker Jean-Baptiste Durand (responsible for the much acclaimed Junkyard Dog [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] movie and awarded the Best First Film César back in February) playing the part of a boxing coach.

La Danse des Renards will be shot between 5 August and 17 September in Brussels, Godinnes and Charleville Mézières. The film is produced by Julie Esparbes on behalf of Hélicotronc (Belgium), who also teamed up with the director to make his short film Titan. Hélicotronc also oversaw shooting on Catherine Cosme’s first feature film, Sauvons les meubles, at the beginning of the summer (starring Vimala Pons and Yoann Zimmer). The movie is co-produced by Inès Daïen Dasi on behalf of Les Films du Poisson (France), who presented Alexis Langlois’ Queens of Drama [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] at the Cannes Film Festival in May. La Danse des Renards enjoys support from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre, the French CNC, Canal+, Ciné+, screen.brussels, Wallimage, the Tax Shelter initiative, RTBF, Proximus, BeTV and the Grand Est region. International sales are entrusted to The Party Film Sales and distribution in France to Jour2fête.