Caravan

In this poetic yet raw road movie, first shown in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, a burn-out mother embarks on a journey through Italy with her intellectually disabled son. While he wrestles with the surge of adolescence, she confronts patriarchal motherhood ideals with quiet rebellion and an irrepressible lust for life.

Ester, 45, has devoted her life to caring for her adolescent son David, who has Down syndrome and autism. Their bond is fierce – but so is her exhaustion. While visiting friends in Italy, tensions rise – David’s behaviour unsettles the household, and they’re asked to sleep in a caravan. That night, Ester takes off. In the old camper winding through southern Italy, she dares to want more from life. David begins to change too, gradually opening up to the world, and to Zuza, a vibrant drifter who becomes their companion. Together, they discover a delicate joy and a new rhythm, as Ester and David each awaken to their own sexuality, defying the roles society assigns to middle-aged women and disabled young men. A warm and deeply personal film inspired by the director’s own experience.

Programme section: Cinema Current / New Female Voices
Original title: Karavan | Year: 2025 | Duration: 100′
Country: Czechia, Slovakia, Italy | Language: Czech, Italian, Slovak, English | Subtitles: English
Director: Zuzana Kirchnerová | Production: Dagmar Sedláčková – MasterFilm, Jakub Viktorín – Nutprodukcia; Tempesta, Czech Television, Slovak Television and Radio, Amygdala Pictures, innogy | Cast: Aňa Geislerová, David Vodstrčil, Juliána Brutovská, Jana Plodková | Screenplay: Zuzana Kirchnerová, Tomáš Bojar, Kristina Májová | Cinematography: Simona Weisslechner, Denisa Buranová | Editing: Adam Brothánek

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Cannes Film Festival, 2025 – World Premiere (Un Certain Regard) | Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2025

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Zuzana Kirchnerová graduated from Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and the Faculty of Law at Charles University. Her graduation film “Bába” won first prize in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes FF. In recent years, she has focused primarily on documentaries. As both director and screenwriter, she has worked on several acclaimed docuseries for Czech Television, including “Four of Us”, “The Magnificent Five”, and “Hospital on the Front Line”. She also directed several documentaries, such as “Marie in Her Head” and “Ambassadors of Baroque Music”. Zuzana is the writer and director of the feature film “Caravan”. The screenplay received the award at the prestigious Torino Feature Lab and was selected for the L’Atelier programme in Cannes. She has worked as a script consultant for the “Pop Up Film Residence” and contributed to the award-winning animated feature “Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light”. Zuzana teaches in the directing department at FAMU Prague. She is currently filming a miniseries for “Oneplay” about the life of writer Simona Monyová.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The theme of Caravan is deeply personal to me. My son was born with Down syndrome and later also developed autism. However, the story of Caravan is not autobiographical in its plot. What resonates with my personal experience is the desire to escape – the longing to rebel against the role that is often imposed on the mother of a disabled child. This theme of rebellion is reflected in the choice of genre. For me, the road movie is the most vivid expression of Ester’s urgent and aggressive longing to live. I wanted to make a film that offers hope, despite its heavy subject matter – a film infused with lightness and humour, albeit of a bittersweet kind.