SummaryTeresa travels to the beaches of Kenya as a sex tourist. There, she moves from one Beach Boy to the next, buying their love only to be disappointed and quickly learn that there, love is strictly a business. [Strand Releasing]
SummaryTeresa travels to the beaches of Kenya as a sex tourist. There, she moves from one Beach Boy to the next, buying their love only to be disappointed and quickly learn that there, love is strictly a business. [Strand Releasing]
Challenging, complex and frequently ugly, Paradise: Love is a ruthless exploration of how unlike our everyday selves we can behave when we’re "on holiday," and how much that illuminates who we really are.
Paradise: Love aka Paradies Liebe is a 2012 film produced and directed by Ulrich Seidl which follows the story of Teresa, an Austrian social worker as a sex-tourist in Kenya.
Despite the fact that the title suggests both Paradise and love, the production has very little to do with either of these meanings, if at all. At first, the Paradisiacal scenery of Kenya’s beaches are mesmerising enough to sway us far away from realities that are commonplace in these beautiful third-world countries. As the film progresses, we begin to see that Paradise is actually a place of human decay and debauchery where local men willingly sell ‘love’ as a means of survival.
Their clients? Western women such as Teresa, who travel there principally in search of true love but who quickly learn that in Paradise, love is merely a business. And as with any business, she is expected to pay for it if she is to live the experience.
There is definite harmony between Margarethe Tiesel’s wonderful performance and Ulrich Seidl’s camerawork which contributes to both the message and the quality of this production. Tiesel rises to the challenge by flaunting a flabby-fat and cellulite ridden body as a sexy and desirable one with which she is completely at ease. It’s probably a challenge any actor would find difficult. In Paradise, Teresa more than ever, embraces the desirable woman within, following the undivided attention that young handsome men show her.
In the beginning despite her reluctance to accept the ‘type of love’ that Paradise has to offer, she succumbs to and accepts that in order to be experienced, love must first go through the body. And in this way, Seidl introduces the audience to the more acute issues of human condition as well as the philosophical dimension that Paradise Love has.
Seidl makes us watch this movie through the eyes and mind of Teresa – through her dilemmas, desires, insecurities, highs and lows. Through Teresa’s mind, behaviour and attitudes, Seidl achieves the goal of forcing us to look at women from a less-traditional light. And in doing this, he shows that men’s reasons for prostitution are similar to most women’s. If we allow ourselves to get even more philosophical than this, we can draw the conclusion that money - therefore power - is all that is needed to overthrow deep rooted traditions and habits; in this case, female power and dominance in male dominated societies.
Of course, the film builds a bridge between past and present by unveiling racism and colonial-mentality as a social issue; the whites exploit the blacks in their own territory. There is clear symbolism there as with the rope that segregates the white westerners from the ‘beach boys’ who are patiently waiting to prey on a white female in search of Paradise Love. Naivety would exhort us to wonder who the prey actually is: the white woman or the black man. However, there can be only one answer: the financially deprived.
Undoubtedly, the majority of the scenes are disturbing and stomach-churning but I like the fact that Seidl doesn’t judge reality. Instead, he shows it for what it is. But in doing so it points the mirror in our direction; and there, a diatribe can be read – one that directly concerns the human mindset for haughtiness, exploitation and disdain towards the ones we consider to be inferior.
From a female perspective however, Seidl seeks to point out women’s constant preoccupation with sex and pleasure, their insecurities regarding this aspect, as well as their ongoing need to seek male validation.
There are few directors who are able to observe society and the people in it quite like Ulrich Seidl. Although fictional (maybe improvised in parts) PARADISE: LIEBE feels like a documentary (or, in the worst case, like your mom's camera roll after her African vacation). And that's the fascinating and unsettling thing about this movie: I could recognize myself in some aspects of the image of a middle-aged Austrian woman/sex tourist. Seidl manages to make you look into the mirror, without getting in your face about it. I thought about the film's title a lot while watching it - love. And it explains some things about the characters I was watching. It made me realize that no one in this film is portrayed as antagonistic, not even the white woman dropping the n-bomb, and handling a male stripper like an exotic circus animal (Yes, this film gets extremely uncomfortable to watch).I also had to think about a recent sociology course at university while watching that dealt with the violence of global economy and modern slavery and Neo-colonialism, so called "globalization". Think of Marx & Engels, Mbembe, Stanley, or Gerstenberger (in Germany). I would love to watch this film with my **** a technical note:- Some shots in this are stunning, I would like to frame them and hang them on my living room wall. - Margarethe Tiesel is phenomenal!
Paradise: Love flits nimbly between humour and sadness, and treats potentially ponderous themes such as sex, race and the rancid legacy of colonialism with a welcome light touch.
A tour de force of meticulous cruelty, a comic melodrama that elicits laughter and empathy and then replaces those responses with squirming discomfort.
Though it covers similar thematic ground to Laurent Cantet’s haiti-set "Heading South," Seidl’s gruelling film proves his knack for leaving viewers emotionally discomfited.
Seidl sternly rejects nuance. All the women are crude and insensitive, all the men are desperate and exploited. Despite copious full-frontal nudity, it’s an unrelievedly puritanical and didactic film.
The first movie of the 'Paradise' trilogy. All the three stories happen in the same time in different locations with different themes. But the protagonists from all the three were a family like two sisters and a daughter. So this movie which unfolds the story of 'Love' of a woman who is mother to a 13 year old. And her journey afar seeking men who make love. Kinda never heard about men called 'sugar mamas' so for me this movie was totally afresh.
It chronicles the story of a 50 year old Austrian women Teresa who travels to Kenya seeking sexual pleasure. As she arrived her destination to a seaside resort she begin to explore like what most of the European women come there to seek. She finds her man but as they all are prostitute do they find her an attractive as she's a fat woman from the north. She tumble into a confusion state but sooner she things she got her perfect one. Does it long lost or she slip it away as usual for her typical reasons is the remaining.
The movie had a strong nude scene all over but not sexual intercourse like reality. If there are no beautiful young women and men that mean it is not belong to an adult movie. Sex is still a sex with any age men and women so I consider it is an adult movie which suits only for selected audience to view. When it comes to the story it was completely different than most of the movie that belongs to male prostitution theme. Much appreciable for the director for his unique approach to tell on the social issues.
Suggestive is an adjective that immediately popped into my mind, especially because its central theme is not commonly explored.
There is nothing complex about the film itself; it mainly delves into desire and the need of companionship. However, the director's eagerness to be realistic leaves the film feeling kinda hollow and not as intellectually stimulating as it thinks it is.
Paradise: Love is a film aimed at those open to challenging movies, although your level of satisfaction with it will depend on your personal judgment. Personally, I did not find it seriously rewarding.