Der Fuchs

The Fox

Austria, mid-1920s: Out of sheer poverty and hardship, the Streitberger family sends their youngest son, Franz, to work as a farmhand for a large farmer. At 18, Franz can finally leave the farm. Looking for work, he ends up as a motorcycle courier in the Austrian army and in 1938, after Austria's annexation by Germany, in the Wehrmacht. There, the introverted Franz prefers to keep to himself, which makes him suspect to the other soldiers. When he finds an injured fox cub one day, he nurses it back to health and takes it with him, even as the Wehrmacht begins its brutal campaign against France. Amid the horrors of war, Franz realizes that his relationship with the vulnerable animal allows him to confront his repressed feelings and childhood traumas.  

Director Adrian Goiginger's film tells the story of his own great-grandfather, Franz Streitberger.