THE WOLF, THE FOX AND THE LEOPARD (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Sherin Nicole
I’m not going to start this review in the usual way but with something akin to a recap of its opening moments and part of the first act. I know you’re likely wondering why, and it’s because those scenes, literally, hit me in the head: Making its world premiere at Tribeca this year, The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard begins with a radio scan, scrolling through the news of several natural disasters caused by climate change. A woman begins to narrate over a black screen in Japanese: “In the beginning, there was no story…” We see the tops of green trees: “The forest was breathing in and out peacefully. But a fever was taking hold of the world. An era was ending…” We drop to the forest floor, where brown and green ferns reach upward, searching for the light: “And it was precisely at this crucial time that she would enter our world.”
Thus the story starts with a boy (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), but he’s really a young man who worries about everything, who is also in therapy. His name is Dylan, but he is not important. The story begins with a girl (Jessica Reynolds). She runs with wolves. They are her pack, but she is captured by men. The narrator names her Ohkami, traditionally spelled ōkami (The Wolf), in Japanese. Thus the story starts in captivity, caged between white walls, inside the dying institutions of mankind. Within that scientific institution is where we finally meet our narrator, Tanaka Hana (Naomi Kawase). That is where their relationship begins.
And yet, that is also when the Fox (Marie Jung) and the Leopard (Nicholas Pinnock) upend her life for the second time and the story becomes a kind of chaotic Noah’s Ark, set adrift on the sea, on the verge of the end of the world. From there the girl—who is the wolf—fights to hold on to her identity, despite the many factions who seek to redefine her. Thus The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard is a movie about madness and how humanity decays the more that we infect the earth. This dark fable is a multiheaded beast, following a wolf girl down the rabbit hole of scientific arrogance, doomsday prepper madness, and government corruption and seeking to chew on her bones. And to show the beast’s teeth, the filmmakers include moments of troubling abuse from a found family.
The Triumphs
Dutch director David Verbeek’s latest is part of an evolution in climate change features, particularly in its centering on women’s and girls’ voices. The film’s narrator, Tanaka Hana, provides more than just exposition—she embodies the film’s philosophical core, with a distinctly feminine perspective on humanity’s relationship with nature. Likewise, the film’s treatment of its wolf-girl protagonist draws deeply from Japanese folklore, where wolves are revered as divine protectors rather than feared predators. Even the name Ohkami speaks to a guardian spirit rather than a true wolf. This borrowing of cultural lore, combined with the film’s environmental message, is a commentary on humanity’s disconnect from natural wisdom. While the wolf-girl on a journey of womanhood becomes a symbol of wildness and resistance against patriarchal institutions.
Verbeek’s exploration of self-realization and sensory deprivation—specifically touch—found in our modern society, also finds its expression in dreamlike sequences. Especially in contrasting Ohkami’s connection with her wolf pack with the lack of connection when she’s forced to live with the Fox and Leopard. The visual storytelling is stunning, creating a hypnotic atmosphere that pulls viewers into this mythological world.
The Shortcomings
While the film’s ambitious scope is praiseworthy, it struggles to maintain narrative coherence and pull because it has so much to say and is trying to say it all at once. The introduction of the Fox and Leopard characters, while rich in folkloric significance and the shock of dysfunction, adds layers of complexity that don’t resolve in satisfying or alternately edifying ways. While the Dylan character, intentionally rendered unimportant, is symbolically acute and yet jarring. And the film’s treatment of its “found family” dynamic, marked by moments of abuse, creates an uncomfortable tension that’s never fully resolved. While this might reflect the film’s themes of humanity’s decay, it leaves viewers struggling to find emotional anchor points in the story.
Last Looks
The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard is climate-focused cinema, offering mythically inspired environmental commentary and femme mythology. While it succeeds in its gorgeous visual poetry, the film’s proselytizing and expansive symbolism sometimes overshadow its emotional core. Like the chaotic ark it resembles, The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard drifts between moments of profound insight, poetic beauty, and narrative discombobulation. While it is a fascinating apocalyptic fable, its ideas outweigh our connection to the story and the characters, leaving us intellectually stimulated and a touch confused, rather than truly touched. However, in an era where film narratives are progressively more straightforward, perhaps this complex, femme-centered perspective is an addition the cli-fi (climate change) genre needs.
