The Fox (2017)

Directed by: Klaas van Eijkeren | 95 minutes | thriller | Actors: Morgan C. Jones, Maarten Dannenberg, Anita Donk, Eric Corton, Joshua Rubin, Noella Brennan, Piet van Eijkeren, Koen van Doorn, Yvonne Molenaar, Fiona van Rossem, Nastassia Vuursteen

Everyone values ​​privacy, but in times where digital innovations (continue to) develop at lightning speed, this is no longer so obvious. Filmmaker Klaas van Eijkeren is amazed at the fact that people – online or otherwise – are sharing personal data or information more easily and without thinking about it too much. Because well, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear… or do you?

Simon Fox (Morgan C. Jones) from Dublin has recently been working in The Hague as a ‘Serious Organized Crime’ agent for Europol. Simon seems a bit unkempt and absent at first. He looks tired, lives among the clutter, drinks liters of coffee a day and snarls at his direct colleague Thijs van Houten (Maarten Dannenberg) at the slightest thing. Thanks to a few flashbacks, it soon becomes clear which traumatic event influences his state of mind. At the insistence of Thijs, Simon decides to take a few days of leave.

However, little comes of rest. Simon learns that a defunct post-war organization, better known as Operation Gladio, appears to be still very active in secret. The more he learns, the more he becomes entangled in a web of political corruption in which the role of his own employer does not escape his notice. When the haughty Europol boss D’arnaud (Eric Corton) feels wet, he puts everything in motion to keep a constant eye on the Irish agent. From that moment on, Simon’s life is no longer private, which he risks (and that of others) to prevent the emergence of a powerful police state.

With the exception of a few sentences, English is the official language in ‘The Fox’, which makes the film (more) internationally accessible. The compact way of telling ensures that the viewer does not receive an overload of information, but is dosed and provided with the necessary knowledge at the right moments to be able to follow the whole. Morgan C. Jones, known for his bit parts in hit series such as ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Vikings’, knows how to portray the main character credibly except for a few clumsy romps. Compared to other characters, Eric Corton is a bit ‘overdressed’ for his role and the layout of his office also reveals a little too much about the extreme right-wing ideals of his character. Nevertheless, the entire company of actors manages to show appropriate emotions to enhance the often capricious atmosphere in ‘The Fox’, just like the winter period and the instrumental music.

Now the situation Simon finds himself in is quite unique, but with a few simple and recognizable examples, Van Eijkeren makes it clear that everyone has to deal with it. For example, he shows, via Simon, that just the contents of a wallet – from bonus card to fuel card – can tell you quite a lot about an individual and that there are numerous possibilities to protect a person from his (or her) privacy quite easily. robbing, without the person having to be aware of it. ‘The Fox’ is not a nail-biting thriller, but from a film technical point of view, Van Eijkeren has managed to paint a realistic picture through crowdfunding and to process a topical subject in an interesting way in a police thriller.