CANNES - An Italy without clichés or filters, stretching from the coast of Emilia-Romagna to the almost metaphysical landscapes of Calabria. This is Caravan, Zuzana Kirchnerová’s poetic directorial debut, presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. An international co-production that intertwines the souls of Central Europe and Italy, the film was produced by MasterFilm (Czechia), Nutprodukcia (Slovakia) and Tempesta Film (Italy), with the support of Eurimages, the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission and the Calabria Film Commission Foundation and with the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Culture (€300K from the call for minority co-productions).
At the centre of the delicate narrative is Ester, a 45-year-old single mother (Ana Geislerová). Ester is the sole carer for her fifteen-year-old son David, a boy with severe cognitive disabilities who requires constant assistance. Dreaming of a short break for herself, Ester leaves for Italy, eager to spend two weeks at a friend's house. But fate changes her plans and forces her to take David on the trip across the country, aboard a camper.
Featuring unplanned stops and unexpected encounters, the journey turns into a true exploration of the soul. The encounter with Zuza (Juliana Brutovská Olhová), a carefree young woman and David's first love, opens a new perspective in Ester's life, that leads her to rediscover her identity as a woman, not just a mother. The film - a deeply personal story for the director, mother of a disabled son - touches on universal themes such as motherhood, being female, guilt and the desire for freedom.
The director’s choice of Italy as a setting had many motivations: geographical but also narrative and emotional, as she explains: “For over twenty years, young men and women from the Czech Republic have been coming here to work in the summer. It was and still is a widespread custom, and often these stays turn into something more: I know several Czech women who now live in Northern Italy, married to Italian men.”
Caravan is also a reflection on desire and the summer dream of a place that represents a mythical horizon, an aesthetic and personal fascination, especially for those without a coastline: “For us Czechs, Italy has always been a summer dream. As a country in the centre of Europe without the sea, we look at the Mediterranean with desire. Italy is the closest destination, over time it has become a real symbol of escape, light and warmth. I also love the Italian countryside, so varied and surprising. One of the most fascinating characteristics of Italy is its internal diversity: the North, Centre, Calabria, each region seems to belong to a world of its own. It is as if there were ten or perhaps more “Italies”, each with its own identity, a unique atmosphere. Then there is the light. Italian light has something magical. It manages to transform every landscape into the scene from a film. And, of course, there is the Italian cinema that I love: from Fellini to Alice Rohrwacher.”
One of the film’s distinctive features is its authentic vision of contemporary Italy, one that is far from stereotype. This element immediately impressed Carlo Cresto-Dina of Tempesta Film, a production company that is particularly sensitive to European auteur cinema.
“When Susanna came to us with the idea of ??shooting a film in Italy, the thing that struck us — reading her first notes, talking to her — was that it eschewed a postcard image of the country,” says Cresto-Dina. “The film had a true, lived vision. It told the story of Italy in its length, in its variety.”
The reference is both geographical and cultural: Italy extends between very different extremes, from Monte Rosa to Mount Etna, passing through complex worlds that are often invisible to the tourist gaze.
“I live abroad,” continues Cresto-Dina, “and I know how difficult it is to explain what the length of Italy really means. Caravan captures this: not just a physical journey, but a lucid and delicate look at our country’s present.”
From the earliest stages of writing, Caravan was intended to be set in Italy, meaning that the country was always an integral part of the narrative. Ester and David's journey winds through Emilia-Romagna and Calabria, crossing territories that become a metaphor for the protagonist's inner transformation. In Romagna, filming was concentrated in Ravenna, Cervia, Milano Marittima, Cesenatico, Bellaria-Igea Marina and Lido di Volano (municipality of Codigoro). The area offered not only evocative settings, but also a warm welcome from the local communities, despite the difficulties caused by the devastating flood of 2023. Ilaria Malagutti of Tempesta Film notes that "the Slovakian and Czech producers were very impressed by the determination with which the region reacted to the emergency, offering us essential support to continue filming".
Fabio Abagnato, director of Emilia-Romagna Film Commission, highlighted the strong local collaborative spirit and notes how Caravan manages to examine the internal contradictions of the same territory: “Filming took place shortly after the flood of 2023. Yet, the communities responded with great generosity, without hindering the production.”
The region becomes the scene of a double truth in the story. On the one hand, it represents a stable and integrated landing place for a foreign family, while on the other it is the setting where that migrant past is rejected or forgotten: “I was struck by how the same land, Emilia-Romagna, can be shown in so many different ways on the screen. In Caravan, the wealthy family of the protagonist’s friend, long settled in Emilia-Romagna, in Cervia, does not welcome David, the boy who returns from the past. At the same time, this is also the region that, in other films (such as Greta Scarano’s), offers an autistic brother a full and unconditional welcome.”
After three intense weeks in Emilia-Romagna, the production moved to Calabria for five weeks, where the crew worked in Melito di Porto Salvo, Bova, Bova Marina, Palizzi, Condofuri, Porto Saline Joniche, Roghudi, San Lorenzo, Brancaleone and Locri. The harsh and authentic landscape becomes a mirror of the protagonist's emotional state, up until the last stop in South Moravia in the Czech Republic.
Caravan represents much more than a simple production hosted in the territory for the Calabria Film Commission: it is instead a coherent and significant component in the long-term effort to promote the region through cinema. This is underlined by the President of the Calabria Film Commission Anton Giulio Grande who stresses the almost symbolic significance of the inclusion of Calabria in the story: “This film is important to us because it offers continuity to the promotion and marketing of the region that we have been concentrating tirelessly on for three years. An effort that intends to strongly highlight the beauty of our territory - even in its less obvious aspects.”
Calabria is positioned in stark contrast to Emilia-Romagna in the film, both in terms of geography and emotional symbolism. While the story in the north touches more rational, structured chords, the south becomes a scenario of passage and transformation, almost suspended in time. "A physical but also existential landing. A land that lends itself to an almost metaphysical reading, profoundly different from Emilia-Romagna. A sort of antechamber that stages a deep family conflict, but also a slow rebalancing of affections.”
The borghi in the province of Reggio Calabria, with their austere and solemn landscape, are charged with a strong symbolic value in the film: “It is the ideal place for a certain type of cinema. A cinema that explores drama, and offers the possibility of balance. Despite exploring delicate, raw crude themes, the film manages to remain deeply educational.”
Location manager Cristina Bartoletti, responsible for the scenic construction of the world of Caravan, recounts the story of the visual work on the film. She notes the complexity of an approach that is narrative, sensorial and photographic at the same time: “We worked on three levels: the first was David, the protagonist: each element had to be able to attract him visually and sensorially. Whether it was a bead curtain, an umbrella or a particular covering, everything had to create shadows and stimuli that could capture his attention, in line with his behaviour.”
The second level was scenic: the elements chosen had to have a strong visual impact, functional to the narrative and also consistent with the aesthetics of the film, “Every object, every space had to be photogenic, visually strong. Nothing could be left to chance.” On the third level, territorial and chromatic, the work of differentiating between the two regions, Emilia-Romagna and Calabria, became crucial.
“We tried to clearly distinguish the two areas, using the colour palette too. Emilia-Romagna is all pastel tones: sand, sage, blues. It is a cushioned land, where Ester’s friend lives a wealthy, orderly life, almost like a postcard. In this context, Ester presents as a sort of Cinderella.”
The contrast with Calabria is clear, not only geographically but also visually: the director and set design choose a range of warmer and more intense colours there, to convey the idea of ??an instinctive, emotional journey. “We stole from each region its most authentic colours” concludes Bartoletti. “Everything had to be incredibly true, realistic, never glossy. Always honest.”
The camper borrowed from Petra (Jana Plodková), Ester’s old friend, is the vehicle - literally and metaphorically - of an escape to the South and a newfound self-awareness. Kirchnerová's direction accompanies this movement, thanks to Simona Weisslechner’s evocative photography and to Cristina Bartoletti’s set design which delicately conveys the beauty and fragility of the places they travel through.
The cast includes Italian actors like Calabrian Mario Russo, who plays Marco, a taciturn young man who helps Ester rediscover her sensuality: “Working on Caravan was an intense and deeply human experience. The film handles delicate themes with great respect and truth and it was an honour to be able to give my contribution to the story. The meeting with Zuzana was wonderful: she is a director with a passionate and authorial vision of work and acting in Caravan was a strong emotional journey for me. In addition, this all took place in my homeland so everything acquires an even deeper meaning. When you work in the places where you grew up, you are not just an actor who plays a character, you are also a son of that land who tells a story, which is also his. Working on a set at home is like closing a circle: you bring the craft you learned far away, and you put it at the service of something you have always felt is yours”.
Caravan attracted interest from major European development hubs: selected for the Atelier of the Cinéfondation in Cannes, at Venice Production Bridge of the Venice Film Festival and benefited from the mentoring path of TorinoFilmLab, becoming one of the most promising European debuts of the year.
Caravan was financed by Czech Television, RTVS, ARTE, the Slovakian Audiovisual Fund, the Czech Audiovisual Fund, MIC- Minority Coproduction fund, the Film Commission della Regione Emilia-Romagna, the Fondazione Calabria and Eurimages, the European funding for co-productions.