Shooting commenced 23 August 2017, on Sebastian Schipper’s kinetic journey across a changing Europe. Written by Schipper and Oliver Ziegenbalg (Friendship), CARAVAN is award-winning director Schipper’s English language debut, and his fifth feature as a director. It is a fitting follow-up to his visceral and immersive Berlinale Silver Bear winner Victoria, a study of the youthful desire for connection combined with an impulsive and exhilarating twist on the heist movie. In CARAVAN, Schipper will build on this and his dynamic skill at real, high-wire film making, which allowed audiences to feel utterly immersed in the moment.

CARAVAN follows William (Stéphane Bak), a young man from the Congo, as he attempts to break through Europe’s borders in search of his brother. By chance he teams up with Gyllen (Fionn Whitehead), a wild and sharp-witted British runaway who has fled his family’s Moroccan holiday in his step-dad’s RV. 

Their trip across Europe is an unpredictable and thrilling ride fuelled by the unstoppable momentum, chaos and humour only a pair of teenagers living on the edge can ignite. In cementing a brotherly bond they learn that to truly depend on each other is the most important gift of all.

Rising stars Stéphane Bak and Fionn Whitehead play William and Gyllen, two teenagers from very different worlds. Whitehead has earned fans across the globe with his powerful, breakout, leading role in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. He has recently completed Richard Eyre’s The Children Act, and was named one of Screen International’s “Stars of Tomorrow 2016”. French actor and young stand-up comedian Bak was most recently seen in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. German star Moritz Bleibtreu, known for Run Lola Run and Munich, and British actor Ben Chaplin, who recently starred in the BBC hit drama Apple Tree Yard, complete the cast. 

CARAVAN will shoot for 11 weeks, tracing their journey across Morocco, Spain and France ending in Calais amongst Europe’s lost refugees.

Gabrielle Stewart, Managing Director at HanWay Films says, “Schipper is one of the most exciting filmmakers today, bringing a raw and visceral energy to all his work. We could not think of a better voice to tell William and Gyllen’s story, set against the backdrop of one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our times”

CARAVAN is a Missing Link Films production. A German-French co-production with Kazak Productions, WDR, Arte, Ard Degeto, Komplizen Film, StudioCanal Film GmbH and RadicalMedia with funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, FFA, Eurimages, Mini Traité, BKM and the DFFF. Studiocanal will release the film in Germany and Rezo Films in France. HanWay Films handles worldwide sales.