Writers: Tomás Bojar, Nadja Dumouchel and Zuzana Kirchnerová
Director: Zuzana Kirchnerová
Sparse, uncomfortable and compelling, the Cannes Un Certain Regard selected film Caravan is intriguingly unpredictable. A single mother from the Czech Republic, along with her son, who has learning disabilities, steals a campervan and drives to the Calabrian coast in Italy to escape the disapproval of her old friend, now married to a rich Italian. Zuzana Kirchnerová’s debut feature is brave and unflinching.
When teenage David trashes the house of his mother’s friend, he is exiled to the campervan that is parked outside the grand mansion. His mother, Ester, of course, joins him. She needs to be with him all the time; they even sleep in the same bed. She is covered in scratches, bruises and bites from the times that David lashes out in frustration. His body is that of a developing adolescent; there is hair under his armpits, and it also grows out of his chin. Accompanying his puberty is the onset of sexual awareness.
His mother hopes that her friend’s family don’t see David’s hand slipping down his shorts when they are sunbathing on the beach. But fellow Czech Zuza, who mother and son meet at a gas station after they have absconded, takes David’s nascent sexuality in her stride. Zuza allows David to stroke her leg and eat grapes from her breasts. She won’t go any further, but she realises that she needs to break the intimacy – the co-dependency – between David and Ester.
As they travel South, looking for the farm Ester worked in when she was younger, the three occupants of the campervan forge relationships that allow them all to relax a little more. For David and Ester, just the presence of an accepting individual is enough to give them breathing space. Ester treats her son like a child, but Zuza permits David to be a young man. She lets him drink alcohol and fool about with the youths they meet on the beach, all of whom welcome David as one of their own. Indeed, they’re more worried about the women’s behaviour than David’s.
But to continue their adventure, the trio needs money for food and petrol, and they ask local farmers if there are any jobs available picking fruit. This work is usually done by illegal immigrants, and we see South Asian women being loaded onto trucks at dawn to ferry them to the fields. That Kirchnerová shows us little more of these women is perhaps the only mistake that she makes in her film, a mistake that Austrian Ulrich Seidl in his Italian-based film Rimini avoided. In his offbeat comedy of 2022, Seidl brought the refugees, first seen sleeping on street corners or in lingering empty buildings, to the forefront of his story as it reached its conclusion. In contrast, Caravan provides only a few glimpses into the world of migrant labour, even as Ester becomes part of it.
Rimini explored the life of a sleazy Austrian lounge-singer working in Italy, and in Caravan, there are echoes of this story when Ester, Suza and David attend an End of Summer singalong in the almost deserted seaside town where they have parked the campervan. It’s real end-of-the-pier entertainment, but a party they all enjoy regardless, especially for Ester, who gains the most out of the impromptu road trip.
Anna Geislerová (also to be seen in the awful forthcoming & Sons) is fragile and magnificent as Ester, a woman who has sacrificed everything to tend to her son. When Ester is touched by the men she mets on her journey, Geislerová almost breaks down as her repressed sexual needs are reawakened. She gives a strong performance in a film where emotions are not discussed at all. Juliana Olhová’s Zuza is the perfect contrast; she’s confident and doesn’t care what other people think. With a fierce sense of what is right and wrong, Zuza is the best travelling companion you could wish for. As David, David Vostrcil is enigmatic, basking in a newfound freedom.
Beautifully shot, Caravan is based on Zuzana Kirchnerová’s own experiences in being the mother of a disabled child. However, Ester is not an autobiographical character; indeed, as the name suggests, Zuza is a closer representation of the director at an early age. Zuza brings joy to Ester and David. What happens after this Italian summer is up to the viewer to decide.
Caravan is screening at the 29th Made in Prague Festival.
