Czech director Zuzana Kirchnerová's life inspires this road trip film, a lighthearted adventure between mother and son, moving between picturesque landscapes and more complex emotional territories.
Zuzana Kirchnerová's road trip film, "Caravan," opens with a series of idyllic vacation scenes. A long shot of a tranquil pool. A beach ball, in close-up, with iridescent sequins inside. Sparkling sunbeams bounce lazily off the pool's surface. A voiceover whispers, "It's going to be okay, David. You'll see." The whispering voice reveals itself as a mother reassuring her son as they lie together in bed under a white sheet. If Terrence Malick directed an advertisement for an Italian vacation home, it would go something like this sequence. However, the idyll is a fleeting mirage.
Director: Zuzana Kirchnerová
Writers: Tomás Bojar, Zuzana Kirchnerová, Kristina Majova
Stars: Anna Geislerová, David Vostrcil, Juliana Olhová
Filmed primarily in Reggio Calabria, Italy, as well as Bologna and the Czech Republic, this is the story of Ester (Ana Geislerova), a 45-year-old single mother, and David (David Vodstrcil), a 15-year-old boy. Their vacation with well-off, middle-class friends is cut short when the family they are supposed to be staying with asks them to move into a caravan. This unexpected request is precipitated by the friends' inability to deal with David's behavior: he has an intellectual disability, which sometimes results in explosive physical outbursts. Exhausted and upset after overhearing condescending conversation about David, Ester leaves in the caravan, taking her son on an impromptu trip, during which they are joined by Zuza (Juliana Brutovska), a free-spirited and energetic young woman.
"Caravan" marks the return of Czech cinema to the official selection at Cannes after a gap of more than 30 years. To date, Kirchnerová is the only Czech filmmaker to have won the Premier Prix at the Cinéfondation in Cannes, back in 2009. Why did it take her so long to capitalize on that victory? The focus of her work to date on the obligations of caregivers is probably the answer. Based on a short film about a teenager's struggle to care for her bedridden grandfather (Baba) and a docudrama following the pregnancies of four women ("Four Pregnancies"), "Caravan" is a film firmly rooted in the experience of caring full-time for another human being, while also trying to exist as oneself. In Ester's case, her self bears the weight of her labor; her existence as something more than a caregiver gradually erodes, with no end in sight.
Partly due to its road trip format, "Caravan" lacks a precise plot, with vignettes unfolding in a fairly interchangeable order as Ester, David, and Zuza try to make their way in the world. The topic of sex arises in various ways, sometimes in relation to David's condition as a curious teenager, but more often around his mother, as Ester tries to explore what romance might be like for someone in her situation.
Dating as a single mother already entails the dilemma of how, when, and whether to reveal her son's existence—a decision that has as much to do with the child's well-being as anything else, but which also tends to confer upon him the status of a secret that must be managed in single parenthood. Ester faces very unique circumstances, managing her son's experience in the world differently than the general experience of raising a teenager.
A prominent scene in Ester's love life addresses the ambiguity of sexual consent in a completely unique way: Ester receives a proposition from an old farmer who has employed her and Zuza as day laborers. Initially unsure, Ester allows the man to touch her, and for the viewer, the scene remains ambiguous. For Zuza, upon encountering them, it's clearly a dirty old man coercing her friend, and she reacts with undisguised fury, taking Ester from the farm. Soon after, Ester bursts into tears, reinforcing the ambiguity of the viewer's experience, before clarifying: she was actually enjoying it. Zuza is all apology and laughter.
David, meanwhile, is "bringing out that outrage," as Zuza puts it, and knowing exactly how to handle his growing interest in other bodies is a question the film leaves largely open. Based on Kirchnerová's own life raising a child with Down syndrome and autism, the film possesses an underlying tenderness that runs throughout, while the harsher scenes earn their place with their sense of authenticity and personal testimony.
Like a young child, David expresses his anger physically and without restraint, yet he has the strength of a robust young man. He expresses his anger without a filter, but this is not his fault, which does not change the fact that his punches and scratches cause great harm.
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