Is Adrien Goiginger's film inspired by a true story?

This Friday, November 15, Arte is offering viewers a movie evening with The fox and the soldier by Adrien Goiginger. But is this film, which takes place during the Second World War, inspired by a true story?

Forget war with an unexpected companion. After The best in the world et A life apartAdrien Goiginger was released on the screens The fox and the soldiera moving film broadcast this Friday, November 15 on Arte from 8:50 p.m. If this feature film, whose story takes place during the Second World War, could have been yet another of its kind with its share of horrors of combat, we let ourselves be captivated by the sweetness of an unusual friendship: that of a fox and a courier from the Austrian army, attached to the Wehrmacht.

Placed on a farm at the age of eight to do hard work, Franz, played by Simon Morzé, the youngest of a miserable family of eight children, decides when he comes of age to run away and joins the Austrian army where he became a motorcycle courier. In 1940, as he was preparing to lead the French campaign and his anger towards his family took hold of him, he discovered an injured fox cub in the forest. He then decides to treat the little animal and take care of it, making it a traveling companion and emotional support. And if this story, as touching as it is poignant, reveals an astonishing friendship, it is nevertheless inspired by a true story.

The director was inspired by his great-grandfather

Indeed, Adrien Goiginger immersed himself in the memories of his great-grandfather Franz Streitberger to write the screenplay for the film The fox and the soldier. In addition to retracing a little-known part of the history of Austria annexed by the Reich and depicting the deplorable living conditions of peasant families in the remote mountains, he was touched by this extraordinary company. “My great-grandfather told me about his life when I was a teenager. I started recording his stories and when I was 14 I had a dream of making a film about the friendship he had with his fox during the war. And I never really gave up on that idea”had confided the Austrian director.