Directed by Zuzana Kirchnerová, Caravan follows Esther, a devoted mother to her son David, who was born with an intellectual disability. Overwhelmed, she steals a caravan after a stressful night and takes David along with her on a van trip through southern Italy. As the pair travel, they meet a young drifter, who slowly starts to bring hope back into the mother and son pair, as they question where they are headed next in both the van and in their lives.

The film is strong in the way it presents southern Italy and the world as a whole. For North American viewers like myself, I have become accustomed to seeing Italy presented to me as a wonderful spot for vacation, with undercurrents of summer and sparkling blue waters. Caravan places us in a new Italy, one that still feels like the Italy, but is far from the one we think we know. It never shies away from showing us the tru realities that Esther is facing, struggling with money, and forced to take jobs just so she can put some food on the table for her son.

On top of this, the camera presents the areas which she drives through with David as quite grim. We still feel like we are in Europe, but are reminded of the darker side of every country and city, which never fully provides support for those in need most. Slightly washed out, but still providing peeks at the vacation visions we often associate with Italy, we are told this reality from the unique point of view of a single mother who just wants what is best for her son. Placed a country so often associated with holiday and rest, for those from the Americas, the cinematography acts as a reminder of the grim realities so many people are facing around the world, no matter what country they call home.

Aside from this, I did find the story to drag quite a bit. Living in a caravan while they drive around the south of Italy, I struggled to see what the overall goal of the film was. We are presented with Esther, who is struggling as a single mother, but as she picks up the drifter and the three begin to travel together, I don’t think I knew enough about Esther to fully commit to her own self discoveries throughout the film. I knew who she was with respect to David, but outside of this, she was just another character to me. This caused a bit of a drag in the film during the middle and end, as her journey was not rooted in any initial understanding I had of her to begin with.

Regarding films which include child characters who have disabilities, it is often discussed how these children are unfortunately often kept quite one dimensional, and are used to further the development and story of an abled adult, like a parent. It is unfortunate to say that this film did not seem to really see David as a fully dimensional character on his own. Although there is nothing wrong with the mains story being about the mother, David only seemed there to further her own plot, never allowing us to know him further out of the context of his mothers journey. This is frustrating because his experience, especially in a story like this one focussing on poverty affecting both the mother and the son, is so crucial to understanding the way a parent’s burnout and own struggles are looked at in the world.

On top of this, the film remained largely unfocussed, which not only resulted in me not feeling like David was treated as a fully formed character, but also never allowed me to fully know Esther’s journey either. With her struggles to find work, to aspects of the plot being focussed on the pair becoming more free spirited and living outside of the clutches of capitalism, the jagged nature of the plot made each character’s journey feel less like one that was ever approaching a conclusive ending, and made teh overall story and film drag on for a bit too long.

Further, it was difficult for me to see what the film was trying to say, as its lack of focus ended up bringing way too many points into the mix. The films points about mothering, poverty, migrant work, raising an intellectually disabled child without financial support, and even remaining a free spirit in a world so taken with capitalism all could have been so stimulating. But in its attempt to touch on all of these topics, it ended up feeling very surface level on all of them, ending without having much to say at all.

In a film this beautiful, that captures southern Italy in such a uniquely grim yet effervescent way, it is unfortunate that the story it is trying to tell ends up being so lacklustre. Burnt out of single mother life, Esther steals a caravan to take her intellectually disabled son on a road trip around souther Italy. In a film that could have so much to say, it ends up trying to do way too much, dragging on, and wasting its simple yet beautiful cinematography on a story that unfortunately remains elusive on what it wants to say about every topic it touches on.

Caravan was screened at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.