Create Your First Project
Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started
Kev (2018, Belgium) by Clémence Hébert
The Auteur Cinema Archive streams on Whush.com
Clémence Hébert’s Kev Joins the Auteur Cinema Archive
The Auteur Cinema Archive is honored to announce the inclusion of Kev (2018, Belgium), a deeply human and quietly radical documentary by Clémence Hébert. Through a sober, unwavering lens, Kev offers a rare and profoundly respectful portrait of a young man whose existence challenges conventional perceptions of communication, care, and connection.
Filmed over four years, Kev follows Kevin, a teenager with a form of autism so severe that most institutions are unwilling or unable to accommodate him. He does not speak, often runs away, has a partially severed ear, and exists in a state of near-constant vulnerability. And yet, Hébert does not frame him through pathology or pity. Instead, she invites the viewer to meet him—truly meet him—on his own terms.
Eschewing narration or over-explanation, the film accompanies Kevin from one unstable living situation to another, quietly observing as he grows from 14 to 18. There is no promise of resolution, no redemptive arc—only the open, cinematic space that Hébert describes as “a possibility to meet the complete otherness.” It is in that space, somewhere between the camera and Kevin’s unpredictable movements, that the film finds its extraordinary power.
Curator Kris De Meester on the inclusion:
"Kev is a film of great restraint, clarity, and courage. Clémence Hébert does not explain her subject—she respects him. Through her sober observation, she opens a window into a different perception of the world, one that refuses simplification or sentimentality. This is the essence of auteur documentary filmmaking: a respectful gaze, an ethical presence, and the humility to witness rather than define."
Hébert, a graduate of INSAS with a background in anthropology, brings to her work a rare depth of insight and patience. Her previous films, made within psychiatric institutions, reflect a long-standing engagement with individuals living at the margins of institutional frameworks. With Kev, she continues this trajectory, but with a level of intimacy and risk that is both formally bold and ethically grounded.
Premiering at Visions du Réel in Nyon in 2018, Kev resonated as an invitation—not to interpret Kevin, but to reconsider what it means to perceive, relate, and be present. Its inclusion in the Auteur Cinema Archive affirms Hébert’s place among filmmakers who challenge both cinematic language and social assumptions through quiet, radical acts of attention.
In a world obsessed with clarity, Kev reminds us of the value of mystery, patience, and unspoken recognition.





