KVIFF 2025: Intriguing Belgian Mom Thriller ‘Kika’ with Manon Clavel
by Alex Billington
July 16, 2025
When it comes to making art house films, the filmmaking matters just as much as the story being told. The quality of the filmmaking, the style & techniques utilized throughout, the choices with regards to each shot and with music & dialogue, how it’s edited together and how it all flows, all of this can make or break a film. A good story won’t be effective without good filmmaking, and stirring filmmaking can elevate a generic story into something riveting and unforgettable. Kika is another intriguing discovery found in the 2025 Karlovy Vary Film Festival (aka KVIFF) selection this year. It initially premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Critics’ Week sidebar, but I only caught up with it at this festival in Czechia. Whenever I come across an impressive film like this, I’m always glad I took the time to watch it. You never know what you’ll find! Kika is a film about a desperate Belgian woman who tries out sex work and exploiting kinks to make some fast cash. Ultimately it is about both strength and vulnerability, and finding out what it takes to move forward.
Kika is the fourth feature film directed by French filmmaker Alexe Poukine, who is based in Belgium. The screenplay is co-written by Alexe Poukine and Thomas van Zuylen, and the film is set in Belgium, although it never really explains where it takes place. Instead, the film is entirely about a young woman named Kika – played with grit and gravitas by the French actress Manon Clavel. Clavel looks a lot like her colleague, the very talented German actress Nina Hoss, and you’ve been watching Hoss in films for many years like I have, it’s a bit hard to shake off this similarity when Kika first gets going. Kika works at a government office that decides who gets welfare money. While pregnant with her second child, she faces the sudden death of her partner. Totally heartbroken, and broke, she sets her priorities straight: stay strong and make money fast. After hearing about selling panties for cash, she decides to explore the peculiar world of sexual kinks and ends up making money in strange ways with strange men. She starts to frequent a sex hotel with her clients, and ends up befriending a group of other sex workers based there who offer her comfort & companionship.
Poukine’s Kika isn’t the only film recently to explore the world of BDSM and sexual kinks. The most famous one is Babygirl with Nicole Kidman, released just last year, also about a woman exploring a side of her she didn’t know much about. Then there’s also Pillion coming up later this year and others like Sanctuary. Kika is similar to Babygirl in that it follows a woman discovering kinks, both with her and with other men, as she comes to understand herself and get through a really tough situation. We follow her story of coincidences & trauma in order to understand her. The film is being pushed as a tribute to sex workers, a way to humanize them and show them as regular people, and it does do that well, but it’s not really a film about sex workers. Kika is an amateur and makes mistake after mistake when she first tries it out. It’s less about pleasure, more about the money she so desperately needs. The film is never overly sexual and doesn’t even show too much of what’s happening. It doesn’t really feel right saying it’s a film about sex work when it’s really a film about personal struggles, society’s failure to care, challenges of vulnerability, healing, grief, emotional turbulence.
Ultimately, the film’s story is unique and compelling, but also too grandiose and convoluted. This is where the filmmaking makes up for it. The opening first act that establishes who Kika is and what is happening is confusing, with various cuts to moments that don’t all add up. Eventually it is possible to figure out what’s going on though I wish it was more clear from the start. The filmmaking flourishes, soundtrack choices, and cinematography help elevate this convoluted story into something moving and meaningful. It’s empowering and emotional in unexpected ways. This isn’t the kind of film people are going to try & rent to watch instead of porn, it’s the kind of film people will watch when they need support going through tough times. It’s the kind of film that offers the same comfort & companionship as her new friends at the hotel. This where the film succeeds and this is why audiences at film festivals are connecting deeply with it. Manon Clavel really does give an unforgettably strong performance and by the end she stands out on her own as an actress to be reckoned with. Even with flaws, Kika is worthwhile discovery and a vibrant film that can get people talking.
Alex’s KVIFF 2025 Rating: 7 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing