Paradise trilogy

Paradise (German: Paradies) is the collective name of three films directed by Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Love (2012), Paradise: Faith (2012) and Paradise: Hope (2013). They focus on three women from one family; one of them travels to Kenya as a sex tourist, one has to spend time at a weight loss camp, and one tries to propagate Catholicism.[1][2] The project is an Austrian majority production with co-producers in Germany and France. It was conceived as one feature film, but after a long gestation became three entries forming a trilogy.[3] The first installment, Paradise: Love, competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5] Seidl originally planned to premiere all three films at the same event, but after the Cannes selection decided to roll out parts two and three, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope, at other major film festivals.[6] The individual films are named after the three theological virtues, and focus on how the protagonists conceive their view of paradise.[7]

Paradise
DVD cover
Directed byUlrich Seidl
Written byUlrich Seidl
Veronika Franz
Produced byUlrich Seidl
CinematographyWolfgang Thaler
Ed Lachman
Edited byChristof Schertenleib
Production
company
Ulrich Seidl Film
CountryAustria
LanguageGerman

Cast
  • Maria Hofstätter as Anna Maria
  • Nabil Saleh as Nabil
  • Margarete Tiesel as Teresa
  • Inge Maux as Teresa's friend
  • Gabriel Mwarua
  • Peter Kazungu
  • Carlos Mkutano

Production

The project was conceived as one 130-minute feature film.[8] The majority producer of the film was the director's Austrian company Ulrich Seidl Film, with Germany's Tat Film and France's Société Parisienne as co-producers. Further co-production support came from the broadcasters ORF, Arte and Degeto. The project received funding from the Austrian Film Institute, Filmfonds Wien, Land Niederösterreich, Eurimages, the French National Center of Cinematography and Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg.[1] Filming took place between 22 October 2009 and 14 September 2010 in Kenya and Vienna.[9][1]

Themes

The director summarized the theme of the trilogy as follows:

All three women fall in love, experience love and, along the way, disappointment. For the daughter at the diet camp (where overweight teens spend their vacations), this is the first love of her life, with all its absolutes. For her mother, who travels to Kenya to find love - or sex – it‘s a conscious choice after years of being disappointed. And her sister, who loves no one but Jesus, and who has thus found a spiritual, wholly cerebral sexual love, goes even further: What you can‘t find on earth, you long for in heaven, the promised paradise.[2]

References
  1. "Paradies". filminstitut.at. Austrian Film Institute. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
  2. "Paradise Love, 2012 Press Kit" (PDF). Cannes Film Festival.
  3. Macnab, Geoffrey (2012-02-09). "Bober's CoProduction Office blasts off with Meteora". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
  4. "2012 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  5. "Cannes Film Festival 2012 line-up announced". timeout. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  6. Staff writer (2012-04-19). "Erstmals zwei österreichische Filme im Wettbewerb von Cannes". Der Standard (in German). Retrieved 2012-04-21.
  7. Knauss, Stefanie (2013). "The Paradise Trilogy: Love, Faith, Hope". Journal of Religion & Film. 17 (2).
  8. "Paradise - A feature film by Ulrich Seidl". ulrichseidl.at. Ulrich Seidl Film. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
  9. "Paradies". viennafilmcommission.at (in German). Vienna Film Commission. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
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