Paradise tells three stories – about three women, three holidays and three loves. The first woman travels to Kenya as a sex tourist. Out of love of Jesus the second woman tries to bring Catholicism back to the Austrian people. And the third, youngest woman loses her innocence in a weight loss camp. —filminstitut.at
Ulrich Seidl was born in Vienna in 1952 and grew up in the town of Horn in Lower Austria. He studied journalism, art history and drama in Vienna, supporting himself with odd jobs, before entering the prestigious Vienna Film Academy at the age of 26. In 1980 he made his first documentary, Einsvierzig. Following the controversy surrounding his second film, Der Ball (1982) – a wickedly satirical portrait of the graduation ball in his home town – Seidl was asked to leave the Film Academy. In 1990 he returned to the scene with the feature-length documentary Good News. Within the decade Seidl was to make seven more documentaries for cinema and television, winning much acclaim and many prizes for his work.
Hundstage – Dog Days, his first fiction film, was released in 2001 and won several important awards, beginning with the grand jury prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2001. The same year also saw the release of Zur Lage / State of… read more
sharp and symmetric but it floats around in that dangerous space between objectivity and exploitation, sympathy is hard to detect in its narration - the movie as a whole feels empty
Nice aspect for Austria, but too long . 90 min. version after cutting off over repetetive footage can be much better. At the final, If director turns back beginning the film , we can realize where we are in the life. Anyway, films are not changing our reality. I would like to advise Laurent Cantet' s Vers le Sud-2005 in order to show well balanced work in the similar subject.
The first part in a trilogy of films on “paradise” by Austrian director Ulrich Siedl. Love focuses on sex tourism in Kenya.
The 2012 Cannes Film Festival is underway and we’re compiling some of the highlights of the coverage.
The first part in a trilogy of films on “paradise” by Austrian director Ulrich Siedl. Love focuses on sex tourism in Kenya.
It is possibly one of the most striking images I have seen in any film to date: an idyllic sand beach, white and blinding, lined with pale-skinned Europeans reclining in unhurried repose. On one side… read review
Ulrich Seidl’s “Paradise: Love” opens, not on the sun-drenched beach paradise of Kenya, but at a drab-looking amusement park in Austria. Middle-aged Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel) is overseeing… read review
Colder than his fellow citizen Haneke, formal as Greenaway, relentless like Herzog, Ulrich Seidl is one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers. After exploring/exploiting the thin line between… read review