Cannes 2025 (Un Certain Regard): Karavan (dir. Zuzana Kirchnerová) | Review

In 1996, The Eighth Day (Le Huitième Jour) featured an iconic quote by actor Pascal Duquenne, who played Georges: “I am happy because I am alive, and being alive is a miracle.” It takes a few moments to fully grasp the inner connotation of this beautiful quote, as it’s layered and meant to be felt from within.

2009 Cinéfondation Award-winning director Zuzana Kirchnerová brings a similar aura into her feature debut, Karavan—not through words, but through a motion picture that visually echoes the spirit of that quote in extraordinary ways.

Ester (Aňa Geislerová) travels to Italy with her less-abled son David (David Vodstrčil) on a long-overdue vacation to visit friends. There’s no kerfuffle or cold distance between mother and son—they are perfectly in sync, understanding each other through traditional, intuitive ways. Their communication relies on sensory tools: touch, hums, and gestures that form a deeply affectionate language of their own. Nothing feels out of place.

However, when unexpected challenges arise involving David—forcing them to stay in a caravan by her friends—Ester decides to steal the caravan and flee with her son. What follows is an improvised duo-vacation, a road of hidden resilience and hard-won freedom that gradually reveals its own journey.

The film gently whispers: “Let’s face the truth—exhaustion and constraint affect everyone. The idea of the perfect mother who must sacrifice her ‘me-time’ for others every second is questionable.” And I believe it. In the spirit of Jasmin Gordon’s The Courageous (TIFF 2024) and Anne-Sophie Bailly’s Mon Inséparable (Venice Film Festival 2024), the unshaped dreams of mothers simmer in a quiet crucible of struggle, bearing commitments that never fade—especially when love and responsibility triple in the care of autistic or less-abled children.

But beyond the words and misinterpretations around motherhood of special children lies a world that only the bonded ones can feel and understand. Kirchnerová taps into these precise instants, crafting a cinematic revelation. It’s about fitting ourselves into their imperfect world—and in doing so, discovering a liberation that reclaims the phrase “a blessing in disguise.”

Ester is a fierce matriarch, guarding both oversensitivity and resilience, torn equally by desperation and desire—a knockout performance by Aňa Geislerová that deserves our full attention. David Vodstrčil shatters stereotypes with his authenticity, radiating virtual hugs through his subtle and moving portrayal of David.

Zuza (Juliána Brutovská), an unplanned addition to the trip, emerges as the perfect companion and emotional comfort zone—like a passing cloud bearing unexpected blessings. She becomes both listener and mirror to the mother-son duo, challenging the lines between freedom and boundaries. She reminds us that the living system isn’t always fixed. In this sense, Zuza becomes the emotional catalyst and rebellious voice against inequality.

An Un Certain Regard selection, Karavan is a trio tour de force road film that awakens us to unraveled realities—the upright, the turbulent, and the magical fragility that lies in between. The uncanny yet essential experiences of less-abled individuals and their mothers—too often left unspoken—are treated with sensitivity and grace in Kirchnerová’s deeply personal, heart-rending cinematic portrait.

Just like its title, their life resembles a caravan: an assembly of memories, carrying both chaos and tenderness. Yet it stands—sturdy, manageable, and most profoundly, steady in every direction.

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