Paradise: Love (2012) User Reviews

As well-thought as it is painful to watch....

[Ehrgeiz · 8/10 · 15 January 2013]

HEAVY SPOILERS

Teresa, a Austrian woman in the age of about 50, spends her holidays in a Kenyan beach resort. She meets there her disgustingly horny friends, and soon it is clear, that all the holidays are about is to get sex with young black men. Teresa is a little reluctant first, not knowing how to get in touch. This changes quickly, when she ends up in a cheap motel with the first of the many intrusive street merchants/de-facto male prostitutes. He treats her too harsh so she leaves in horror before intercourse starts. Though agonized at first, she meets the next day the softer and seemingly more romantic Munga, with whom she spends two days drinking, smoking dope and having sex. Munga starts to have steadily increasing financial demands, covered up by stories tho help relatives who are sick and in need. When Teresa refuses to give him more money, he forbids her to touch him and hides from her the next day. You can run, but never hide - soon she discovers at the beach, that his "sister" she got to know earlier is actually his wife, and berates him, rips his rastas and beats him in a humiliating way at the public beach - only to have sex with the next merchant later that day. This time, she gives that guy money without second thought, when he tells her, that he needs it for the treatment of his brother who "just" happened to have a motorcycle accident.

The climax is Teresas birthday. While her teenage daughter does not give her a phone call, even when she reminds her on the mailbox for that, her Austrian friends have a "surprise". They try to start a sex party and have one Kenyan man with them, who strips for them. The four elder women try to heat him up, by stripping themselves, getting touchy e.g., so that he will get an erection - without success. Later, when the friends left, Teresa tries to have sex with a little shy clerk of the club, whom he seem earlier when she and another friend make fun of him in a little offensive way. Teresa throws him out angrily, when he refuses to lick her pussy. Then she cries.

Seidls "paradise love" is a multidimensional movie, who is definitely hard to watch for the viewer. Especially the sex scenes are kind of an endurance test, for several reasons. You see the extremely obese Teresa partly or fully naked, and some of her friends. Also, while you never see the actual intercourse, the scenes are very long, and they deal mainly about, how Teresa kind of negotiates in an awkward way, what the males shall do and not (for example, how to touch her titties).

While many other viewers say that they feel more for the Teresa towards the end of the movies, I feel different. When her need for a little romanticism is put to a test by Munga and she learns how prostitution there works, she becomes kind of mean, and even more demanding for cheap sex. In between she deals - towards her friends and the men - with her self-pity, telling them how ugly she is.

The whole prostitution business is shown very realistic here, and not so much different how it works for men. I like how Seidl shows, despite their is a "mutual business agreement", it does not really work out many times. The Austrian women here are, despite sex-hungry, often a little racist and many times openly offensive towards the Kenyans. The interesting thing is, that the environment in that very touristic place supports that attitude. The most impressive picture, to me, is early in the movie: On one side, in the club, the all-white tourists laying on their sun lounges, on the other side, at the start of the beach, the lurking street merchants, just separated by a little white line - guarded by a paramilitary looking black guard of the club. The imagery is great, anyways; the camera man of this has a very good feeling how to use light and manages, f.e., to show the dream-like beach in a bright, but also cold and threatening light, one time.

This movie is not fun, never mind what other critics say, and though some parts of it are very satirical, I think, it goes more in the drama direction - with a main character, that is hard to like. Anyway, it is strong, powerful movie, but only for those people, who like to look in the depths of human society, enjoy highly realistic movies, or like movies where you can think a lot about.

Remarkable film about sex tourism in Africa for 50+ women

[JvH48 · 8/10 · 25 October 2012]

I saw this film at the Ghent filmfestival 2012. We were told that it was the first of three related films, the two successors to be named 'Paradise: Faith' (already released), and 'Paradise: Hope' (to be released in 2013). Quote from festival announcement: "On Kenya's beaches they are known as 'sugar mamas': European women who seek out African boys selling love to earn a living. Teresa, a 50-year-old Austrian woman, travels to this vacation paradise. 'Paradise: Love' tells of older women and young men, of Europe and Africa, and of the exploited, who end up exploiting others."

The festival screening took place in a fully booked venue (225 seats). More than half (very unusual) of the people stayed for the final Q&A with the principal actor (Margarete Tiesel), and there were (also unusual) many relevant questions. She admitted upfront that she had not read the script prior to shooting (though she did after wards). She is a professional actor, but the African boys are all amateurs.

What struck me the most when watching this film, is that the "boys" never ask money for their "services" in a direct way. Rather they always seem to have a family member in financial difficulties, badly in need of financial support, medical bills being the most common story. We see that happen on Terese's first trip outside the hotel, where her "boy" takes her to his sister (not really, as we see later on), and subsequently a school teacher. Each one has a sad story and needs money. And when she does not cough up enough money, the boy refuses to be touched anymore. On her second trip Teresa seems very aware of all this, recognizing it as standard operating procedure. She starts playing along without feeling awkward about it, and gradually appears to have found her way in this "game".

In the final Q&A the subject "exploitation" came about several times, apparently without easy answers. It is not exploitation per se, when both sides look happy with the arrangement. She talked with several other women there with ample experience in the matter. Some bought for instance a motor bike for her African "lover", or even a house, and travel a few times per year to the area. The "boys" speak one of the usual European languages (English, German, etc); which one is dependent on the area. Yet, while the story progresses, we nevertheless observe a certain language barrier, several times causing misunderstandings about mutual intentions.

All in all, this is a remarkable feature film bordering on a documentary about sex tourism. We have heard about sex tourism in Thailand, particularly for men. This time it is about women with money to spend. The film clearly demonstrates to us how it works. What the films shows is very explicit, even to the extent that we see Teresa explaining to the "boy" how she prefers to be touched, and we closely observe him learning which way works best for her. This scene marks the duality of their respective roles, not parasitic but rather symbiotic. Showing all this in a natural way, without too much embarrassment for us viewers, is an achievement in itself. I scored a 5 (out of 5) for the audience award when leaving the theater.

Funny, unpleasant, charming, tragic and thought-provoking gem

[OJT · 8/10 · 27 October 2012]

Without knowing anything more about this, than getting quite OK reviews, I went to see this as they had taken the film I came to see off the day before. Choosing away Skyfall, Stone's Savages and the German film Barbara, because I heard this film was provoking.

It is provoking, at least to many, I'll guess. But I found it to be a very good film, with just as much emphasis on other qualities. The opening scene is simply hilarious, an made the whole crowd instantly fall in a good mood with a LOL-moment, but not without us feeling a tiny bit of shame. This has nothing to do with the film itself, except giving us a glimpse of the main person, Theresa's, background. Completely brilliant way to set tone, and making the audience aware, an f...king hilarious!

We soon see her, as a 50'ish woman preparing for holiday trip to Kenya. Arriving there, we see the obvious goal for a paradise holiday in the sun, and obviously something a lot of German speaking tourists do, as the locals are quite good in German phrases. we are soon seeing that sex tourism is quite big down here, and a reluctant Teresa goes along after getting recommendations from her experienced travel friend, which already is "going steady" with her sugar mama.

As th film plays on, we get a close look at what this sex traffic is all about. Not much prettier than we have learned from men's trips to Thailand or Indonesia. It unravels both he understanding of the reason, as well as the less pretty sides of it. It's shown in a good way, but is more an more showing the unpleasant and nasty sides of it as well. It's after a while thrown Directly and literary in your face.

Director Ulrich Seidl is perhaps taking after his well known and brilliantly provoking countryman Mikael Haneke, and succeeds very well. This is the first if a trilogy starting with "Paradise" as first word in the title. I'll be sure to see the two next ones, as this simply gave me the same great feeling to watch as the first of Kieslowki's "Trois coleurs" back in 1993.

This film is many things at the same time, and a gem for those not to easily offended. It's fun in a quirky Scandinavian way, it's beautifully filmed, and great and neatly told. It doesn't take a stand, but it wants you to do so. It's both beautiful and sad, both funny and tragic, both charming and disgusting. But most if all, it feels very true, and not at all fake. But I think all the laughs here are fabulously loosening up what gives us bad tastes in mouth. It makes the very balanced, even though taking up a severe subject to discussion.

I guess many will have troubles watching the naked bodies, as well as heavily overweight women indulging in sex acts with young local's, but I heavily recommend to give it a shot. This gem won't leave you for a long time. It even gives a great picture of Kenya as a travel goal, with th draw backs of what tourism might lead to. Stunningly good filmmaking and surely something you haven't seen on screen before!

Purgatory: logical light

[chaos-rampant · 1 October 2013]

We enter here a paradisaical world with this woman, a middle-aged Austrian who's gone to Kenya on vacation. We enter as she does, strangers, fascinated. There is no transition to this new world, no waiting on airports, no planning for the journey, we are immediately swept as if by the urge to be there. Once there we see as she does, stylized images, arranged symmetries.

In the hotel resort there are trivial games, senile safety, control: the Africans are confections to be toyed with and enjoyed, ranges for the eye to roam. The question that looms is is she there for the encounter and surprise or merely looking for images to bring home to a dull life? You'll see this early in the metaphor with the monkey that takes her bait but refuses to be photographed, eluding her. More importantly: are we here on cinematic vacation or to come to an understanding?

Out in the streets there is a more palpable tension however; all about baring yourself to be seen and the quest for meaning. I like the subject, the lush Africa, the sexual frankness, the fact that sex and meaning are sublimated in a viewing space between people.

So I believe this could have been tremendously powerful stuff in the right hands. Alas the filmmaker is Austrian and this means that we see in the same stark light they bring to everything they do: from logic to politics to music. What does this mean, a stark light ?

It means every encounter has to be sooner rather than later exposed as meaningless, because the ultimate point here is some void at heart, the same that originally creates the journey there, which is also the filmmaker's. It means that he can't let go, and not allowing himself to yet know, coast on the tension of an encounter that may be false, that most probably is false, yet like movies and love work in life, that we can throw ourselves in it as if it is real and in doing so imbue it with truth, weave it from air. A Mood for Love with a question behind each glance.

I'm dreaming of the film Cassavetes would do: all about building to this more or less certain horizon of betrayal with momentary truths, small moments like passing a joint in the dark, riding this tension, hiding the logical knowledge. So I lament this because his failure is the same as his heroine's failure to find fulfillment. He resorts to more obvious stuff, merely chronicling the lack: disillusionment, loneliness and how that gives rise to dehumanizing spectacle as in the scene where the woman is offered in her hotel room a witless African to tease and fondle. Ordinary.

You can even see this reluctance in his camera when now and then he lets it wander: we don't deeply feel the textures, we are never truly enmeshed in the world.

Again this is as much cinematic translation of the woman's pov as it is inescapable worldview for the filmmaker, the same boxed worldview that Herzog runs from by journeying to the edges to throw himself on the manifold strangeness of things, letting his eye roam, staging boats tugged over hills so it can become real.

Intriguing take on sex tourism in Africa

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 3 December 2015]

Do not be fooled by the title of this movie or by what you see at the surface during these 2 hours. Despite the music, the noises and the bright colors, this is a pretty depressing film. And "depressing" does refer to almost everybody in here. First of all, we have a main character who is looking for true love, but finds pretty much nothing but scam until she joins in the exploitation at the end. Then there is the African men. Their struggles do not necessarily have to do with emotion, but with hoping for a better life and not being afraid of abusing other people emotionally as a consequence of their poverty. And finally, it's the other Austrian women in here. If they do what they do with these African men, it tells me that their life back at their home must be truly unsatisfying and out of balance.

"Paradise: Love" is the first film from Ulrich Seidl's "Paradise" trilogy. Obviously lots of irony in that title. The other two films are about religion and adolescence/obesity. But back to this one. Seidl was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won Best Picture at the Austrian film Awards. Lead Actress Margarete Tiesel, who carried this film nicely with how likable yet suffering a character she portrayed, won Best Actress at the same event and was also nominated for a European Film award (that went to Riva). The scene when she talks on her daughter's answering machine is pretty heartbreaking. And even if this is probably my least favorite from the trilogy, it was a good watch. No doubt Seidl is among the finest Austria currently has to offer. And even if you do not care for this film or like it in terms of the action, it is still an interesting watch because it takes us into a culture and society that could not be any more different from the one, in which we live. A film that is painful to watch, yet it's difficult to look away. Well done by Seidl and I certainly recommend it.

Lust is all you need

[xWRL · 9/10 · 14 June 2013]

Some white middle-aged German-speaking women tourists seek sex from male youths on a beach in Kenya--what could go wrong?

This movie vividly documents the repercussions of living out sexual fantasies without thinking of the other person. The location shots make clear the disparity between the visitors and the local people. The tourists' hotel aspires to luxury yet it's sad and artificial, with live entertainment that looks sadly out of place. There's a (literal) dividing line between the hotel and the beach, dividing "Europe," as one person calls it, from Africa.

At one point, the main character wishes out loud that her sex boys would look deeply into her eyes and see her soul rather than merely performing sex in exchange for money. It's the perfect irony, since this woman and her tourist friends show no human regard for the young men they use for sex.

The locales and the situations are exotic. The contrasts we see are eye-opening. Here is a movie produced without frills that promises nonetheless to leave a lasting impression.

Old women, sandy beaches and...love

[tomassparups · 7/10 · 16 July 2013]

"Paradise: Love" or "Paradies: Liebe" is Ulrich Seidl's first installment in his "Paradise" trilogy. It premiered at the "Cannes Film Festival" last year, but only recently has been widely available. Even on your first glance at a promotional poster or still of the film, it is pretty clear that the word "paradise" is meant to be sarcastic. The film stars Margarete Tiesel as a middle aged Austrian housewife named Teresa,who lives in an apartment block in Vienna with her overweight, teenage daughter. Teresa is a single mother and longs for a man to satisfy her sexual needs as well as show her love and passion. She and her two friends decide to go on a vacation to Kenya to unwind from the stresses of everyday life. Teresa's friend, Inga has visited Kenya multiple times and is a regular patron of it's wide range of male prostitute's. She convinces Teresa to try out their services and claims that the experience is fantastic. Unlike Inga, Teresa faces a psychological dilemma of whether on not the young men find her attractive. This leads her to backing out of the sex that she is offered, until she meets a man named Munga, played by Peter Kazungu who offers his services for free and only asks for love. Unfortunately, for him love qualifies as financial aid to his relatives. Teresa soon realizes that she is being used and how low she has sunk

Director, Ulrich Seidl seems to have a very bleak and distorted view of the world. "Paradise: Love" is an incredibly depressing examination of the human condition, but at the same time it is painfully honest. Similar to Lars Von Trier, Seidl seems to enjoy exploring the filth hidden inside human beings and seeing how much humiliation a human being can endure. In no way could I possibly say that I enjoyed this film, but it most definitely is good cinema. Despite it being utterly repugnant, it does provide some intricate social commentary not only on prostitution, but on the state of decay in which Africa is currently in. The film forges it's own sick brand of cynical humor, which intentionally does not bring some light to the story, but make it feel even more cringe worthy. On a technical level "Paradise: Love" succeeds at showcasing Kenya's beauty as well as diving into it's dark recesses which is topped off by very long takes and tracking shots, which are always a great addition to a film.

I'm not sure I would like to see it again, but nevertheless "Paradise: Love" is a painfully honest example of great social commentary and an examination of Africa's recent decay. Margarete Tiesel gives a great and incredibly brave performance, which is topped off with Ulrich Seidl's fantastically disgusting direction. After seeing this, I'm very keen on seeing the next installment in the series, "Paradise: Faith"

(No) Paradise: (No) Love

[RainDogJr · 8/10 · 8 December 2012]

After watching the first part of Ulrich Seidl's PARADISE trilogy you just have to answer to one question to know whether this Austrian director is doing worth watching material or not – "would I like to watch the second part?" And well, I would. There's really nothing quite like this film, for better or worse; although some of themes it touches aren't something we couldn't find elsewhere. It's about a woman, or better said women in their fifties or something who aren't happy – they have never been satisfied with the way they look and with their whole love life.

The first unusual thing is the setting: the African country Kenya. To call this some sort of definitive look at the culture of Kenya would be simplify things very much. It's really just a look at the Kenya that's close to the tourists. Nevertheless is a very rich film for that matter, with a quick learning of part of the culture – it's funny that we get to learn some African phrases that most likely, well one in specific, will make you remember Disney's THE LION KING!

The reason we don't see much of Kenya is that our main character Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel) is the representation of a tourist who's not traveling just to know a different part of the world but to find a new part of herself (and to do that she doesn't need to go very far from her hotel). PARADISE: LOVE is one of those films that constantly make you feel sorry for the respective protagonist. Ulrich definitely succeeded in creating a piece where things aren't totally messed up only superficially. Teresa is leaving her country Austria for the paradise of the title. The paradise refers to both the place and the things she believes is up to: a complete sexual freedom in Africa that ultimately could end in an experimentation of love – love is, unlike in Europe, eternal in Africa, says one of the main Kenyan characters

As you can tell, things aren't going to be as good as planned for Teresa. You may be thinking this is therefore a very sad film with the likes of a Todd Solondz film. After all, we have an upper middle class European woman with overweight continually suffering as sadness and dissatisfaction. Like I said, superficially things aren't quite depressing. PARADISE: LOVE is a women-having-crazy-vacation-fun film too – I'm writing this as a guy in his early twenties but if there's an audience that will "get" the film is definitely women in their forties or something close. What we have here is a very feminine point of view.

Therefore its sexual content is unusual as well – I'm pretty sure this film is one of the most, if not the most explicit one of the year, yet we don't have any intercourse scene. It's a take on male prostitution too – this is why, I think, the explicit material is only there to capture those women's lust and, essentially, idea of a real paradise. In other words: there's a lot of male nudity… you've been warned! The film is a deep, and very different sort-of "chick flick"; a sad look at a real issue that sometimes is funny.

*Watched it on 02 December, 2012

Loved it!

[petarmatic · 7/10 · 2 January 2014]

Finally some meaningful film on the repertoire! I loved it although I found it a little bit slow, but I still gave it 7 out of 10. Life in reality is slow, so it is natural.

So is sex. Natural! That is showing in this film. Everyone needs sex and love! So do fat Austrian women. In Austria they probably would not get any, so they have to travel to Kenya. Kenyan are so poor that it is a way to make some money. It is business! Sex tourism! There is so much of it today all over the world. Sad and funny and heartwarming at the same time.

If you want a little bit break from Hollywood, please watch this.

Meticulous, sincere, unapologetic

[aequus314 · 9/10 · 27 June 2013]

When reading internet reviews of Paradise: Love (Paradies: Liebe) — the first in a trilogy of films by Ulrich Seidl, never have I been greeted with such a narrow variety of perspectives. From adjectives limited to a spectrum anywhere between grotesque, obese and tubby, comparisons in style between Seidl and fellow Austrian Michael Haneke, to referencing the exact same quote by Werner Herzog (used in describing Seidl's 2011 documentary Animal Love), I could not help but wonder… what the heck is going on? And when did pundits unite in thinking that female sex tourism in cinema would die eight years ago, after Laurent Cantet's Heading South (Vers le sud); a French film based on three middle-aged women and their search of sex and intimacy with Haitian men?

Herzog's candid remark, conflated into a handy, overused critique isn't worth repeating here.

Loneliness, exploitation, the prison room of cultural and self- repression are themes in this Austrian drama. Cruelly soaked in the warm currents of colonial past; Ulrich Seidl meticulously, sincerely, unapologetically paints the portrait of Teresa (Margarete Tiesel) — a 50 year old woman living in Vienna, upper middle-class, divorced mother of a teenager. Most of the film depicts events that gradually unfold during her lone vacation on the shores of Kenya.

Sex tourism is probably only part of the canvas, though. For in the process, it scratches and destroys the heteronormative lenses with which we understand taboos. Written by Seidl and Veronika Franz; Paradise: Love is a film so explicitly honest to the point of being awkward; that most viewers, embarrassed for Teresa, will look away during moments of vulnerability and self-revelation. The camera of cinematographers Edward Lachman and Wolfgang Thaler looks on unflinchingly during a scabrous encounter with her first companion: does he find her attractive? Isn't she too old for him? Why would he want to make love to her — a beached whale with sagging upper glands, belly full of fat, soggy exterior flawed with celluloid? But most pressingly, having considered the social realist tradition of framing with minimum distortion, why would anyone wince and look away when confronted with mirrors reflecting the consequence of corporeality?

This seventeenth feature by the controversial auteur has been slammed, shamed and shunned for being brazen in its visual audacity. Suggestions that Seidl manipulates viewers with exploitative logic are also suspect in affecting the film's overall reception. Yet, it would be prudent to withhold from believing such. In Paradise: Love — seekers, movers, malcontent inhabitants are drenched in the rich, luxurious texture of a sunlit paradise. The narrative path however; doesn't build up to sex, love or Maslowian truth as its payoff; lesser films would.

I have no doubt this film is a difficult watch because Ulrich Seidl forces Teresa (and us) to acknowledge the naive illusions of paradisaical beauty. But in rhythmic throes that oscillate between anguish, ecstasy and depravity — the African rendition of La Paloma; perhaps a bit saddened by its contrast with the ugly, ordinary trading off between flesh and soul — Seidl derides the remarkable irony of what it means to be human. The dewy-eyed bourgeois privilege suffers. I suppose this is the real reason why Paradise: Love can seem so offensive and unglamorous.

cinemainterruptus.wordpress.com

Slutty European Women as Sex Tourists in Kenya

[mamlukman · 7/10 · 24 November 2016]

I watched this for a very particular reason: last year I began researching conversions to Islam among Westerners. I found that 75% are women between 15-24. That seemed a bit odd to me...then I read a French report on Islamic extremists--most were, surprisingly, women converts! Then I began thinking about cults...the Manson Family...mostly women...Branch Davidians....mostly women....and so on. Then there is the phenomenon of the kidnapped girls, some of whom had the freedom to run away but refused to do so (Elizabeth Smart, et al.). While watching "Beatles: Eight Days a Week," which is mainly about the concerts the Beatles gave, it struck me that virtually the entire audience was young girls, all hysterical. Why???? Then, when thinking one day about Obama's mother (married a Kenyan student when she was very young, then married an Indonesian), I stumbled across this sub-culture of women who search out exotic locales for sex tourism. It's not a new phenomenon, but I'm not sure when it began-- "Heading South," about female sex tourism is supposedly set in 1979. "Bezness as Usual" is set in Tunisia in present day--but it concerns what happened almost 30 years ago--so c. 1986 or so. "Paradise: Love" is present day, so 2012. I am curious when this phenomenon began--when women as well as men began taking sex holidays. Maybe the sexual revolution of the 1960s unleashed something??? What's up with all these women? If anyone has a clue, please answer in FAQ comments.

As for "exploitation," it is not an easy issue. Clearly the power is in the hands of the European/American women. They have the money, they have passports to leave when they're ready, and they seem to be relatively safe. One movie said something like "Tourists don't die." The beach boys on the other hand know exactly what they're getting into. Yeah, you could say they "don't have a choice" but as Sartre said, "There is always a choice." And they do have power too--the women get emotionally attached to them; they never, ever get emotionally attached to the women--even if they marry them. They manipulate the women, as "Paradise: Love" shows so well. The hero of this particular movie is Joseph (or something like that) the bartender. At the end of the movie he says he "wants" to have sex with her but "is not used to" doing such things. In the end, his reluctance gets him kicked out of the room. But he is the moral force, such as it is, of the movie.

If this is the face that the West presents in these countries, it's no wonder the West is hated and despised. But the women--in all these movies--don't give a second's thought to that. It's all about them personally, and the larger picture is not even on the horizon.

This is a good movie in the sense that it at least tries to take a stab at explaining the women's motivations. A second movie, Dutch, 2016, is "Benzess as Usual," where the son of one of these vacation idylls returns to meet his father. In this case, it's Tunisia. But exactly the same thing is going on--older women using younger, poor men for sex. And, as hinted at in "Headed South" in this case the beach boy is taken to the Netherlands and then Switzerland (by different women!). He marries both, but of course it ends badly. A third movie in this genre is "Heading South." In this case, it's French and American women in Haiti. (But it happens throughout the Caribbean, esp. Jamaica). The location changes, the story is the same. There are also numerous youtube videos on this theme. And then of course there are books like "The White Masai" about a young (!) Swiss woman who marries a Masai--and not an educated, Westernized one, but a native from a village living in a mud hut. It's beyond bizarre. She is "shocked" when things don't work out. I am simply speechless.

escape from acceptance

[ansirahka · 8/10 · 29 December 2020]

I remember watching this in my twenties and hoping to never end up as one of these ladies, now in my thirties i'd realised i might actually end up like one of them, I just hope i can actually afford it by then.

Well made but possibly too direct

[paul2001sw-1 · 7/10 · 27 December 2015]

Prostitution, they say, is the world's oldest profession, and can be justified as a mutually beneficial transaction on the basic principles of market economics - if, and it's a big if, the buyer knows what they are getting and the seller is in a position to make a reasonable choice. But often sellers are distressed, making a choice but under terrible constraints; and perhaps some buyers too are looking for something that cannot be bought. Udo Siedel's film 'Love', the first in a trilogy, is about a middle aged Austrian woman who travels to Keyna in search of a sexual adventure to rebuild her sense of self: the result is just sad. I don't know how realistic the scenes depicted in the movie are; but as drama, and not documentary, it's a strange film, depressing and without a conventional narrative arc: there is so clearly no happy ending here for anyone, right from the start, and the protagonists' unappealing nature (on both sides) is offset by the obvious absence of any obvious better choices in their lives. The film is cleverly shaped, and well acted; but it's ultimately unclear what the point is supposed to be, beyond what we might have guessed from the outset.

Paradise: Ouch

[laneamala · 3/10 · 12 December 2013]

This film is certainly not for the faint of heart. A woman (a nurse). who is obsessive compulsive about cleanliness and who micromanages her daughter, escapes to Kenya for a vacation. She 'loves' her daughter and she wants 'love' from these male prostitutes. The whole concept is extremely sad. Maybe it is true that this is the human condition for some women but I just found it too offensive to watch. It made me sick to my stomach to see the racism and objectification going on. I disagree with other reviewers' descriptions of the sexual frankness and naturalness. The whole film is fraught with awkwardness and vulgarity. None of these characters is really there for love. It is a docu-drama on sexual exploitation and racism. And it reveals painfully the incredible imbalance of power that exists on this planet as well as the extreme lack of sexual maturity and ability to create intimacy in our lives. Eros permeates everything and is what can lead us to experience true intimacy and ecstasy. But when all is seen as an object for one's own pleasure, for an escape from pain, there is no eros, no love. Of course, the filmmaker isn't trying to show us true love. Obviously, this is about the whole problem of the emptiness in these women's lives. And perhaps it shows men who are into sex tourism just what they're doing better than if it were a male centric sex tourist film. But I find it so flat and I agree with one of the reviewers that that is because the director never takes a moment to allow even a bit of connection, true humanity to shine through. It's hard to find this scenario plausible because I can't believe that the only thing these woman want to do is get laid. But then again, I might be naive. Maybe that is all they want after all.

Love

[cinematic_aficionado · 23 June 2013]

An Austrian woman on holiday in Kenya, is convinced by a fellow country woman to seduce a local boys for the fun of it as they are tasty as an exotic fruit. The hesitant woman eventually gives in and she has a taste of young love. Unaware or perhaps out of naivety that for the local boys, older European women are a good way to supplement their income she spends a bit of time under the illusion that she is loved by an attractive young man. When reality hits, it hurts and this frustrated woman turns her quest from looking for a bit of fun to an odyssey of self-confirmation.

Simple, effective and nicely made this is a beautifully visual thesis on holiday romance.

Sad, bleak and depressing - but educating

[Catharina_Sweden · 7/10 · 7 September 2014]

This is a very sad movie. It explores some of the worst sides of human nature, I should say. To begin with, I can sympathize with Theresa, because her longing for love and sex, although she has become too old and fat for Western European men - is after all a natural thing. I feel sorry for her, when the African men only try to suck her out of more and more money, in a completely shameless way.

But then Theresa also changes into someone harder, who does not expect love anymore but just seeks sex on her own terms. She is getting ruthless, and in the end - and in the company of her women friends who are the same - she can even treat a very young man, almost a boy, as if he was some kind of animal... By then she has lost me, and I feel an equal disgust against the Western women and the African men, customers and sellers in the sex trade, alike. I have also lost all desire to visit Africa South of Sahara, ever...

The photo is very bleak and dark, and it does not seem very professional. But maybe this is intentional - to make it look more like a documentary or a reality show? I think it would have been more entertaining with Hollywood standard on the photo and filming, though.

This is not a movie that you should watch if you are already depressed and have doubts about the human race... And absolutely not in the company of children or teenagers, as there is a lot of nudity here and sex showed in an unpleasant way - the opposite of romantic. But if you want to learn something about what your sister, mother, colleague or friend might have been up to on her "cultural" tour of Gambia or Kenya... you might give it a go!

Really good...

[blue_blues44 · 10/10 · 7 February 2013]

It shows the same thing as men in Thailand but from a mirror perspective.

To feel how it is to be a woman seeing how men behave in Thailand was hard to understand and didn't really wanna care. Mostly I think its because one cant relate to it if you don't have attraction to the sex that actually performs the disgusting acts. For example men seeing old men having sex with young girls.

This made me care even more how disgusting it really is and easier to relate to it by watching from the "other" side.

I think both female and male will learn something by watching this that we aren't so much different or better then the other person. Good and bad is seen in both sexes.

This is a great movie - it doesn't hold back. Hold on to your chair... this is gonna be a ride thats gonna make your jaw drop! Worth it...

Bleak, grim and difficult to watch at times, but very effective at relaying its message

[pcrprimer · 7/10 · 10 July 2014]

To begin with, this movie would certainly be rated NC-17, and it is impossible for it to get a wide commercial release with the subject matter and nudity. The acting and scenery is terrific, and has an almost documentary-like feel to it. The realism of the characters makes some parts even more cringe-worthy and difficult to watch. The movie also tackled a lot of different aspects in western society, such as the pressures placed on women about physical appearances. The main actress in the movie is really convincing in her role and really puts herself out there for the viewers. Its interesting how she starts off trying to be like her friends, but then seeks out love in her naivete. Even during the birthday party and with the bartender, she shows how she is not like her other boy-toy seeking friends.

Well done Austrian made flick on a provocative subject

[ecs-27756 · 8/10 · 14 November 2015]

This flick is about over the hill, fat, white women from Europe that travel to Africa for romance with young black men. It was very well acted and filmed on location in Kenya. The Austrian made film was a mix of German and English but with enough subtitles to make it quite watchable. It seemed realistic - real people with different agendas all trying to get what they want and without the usual political correctness seen in so many American films. The leading character seemed very believable - typical overconfident middle aged German on holiday, speaking English with German grammar. This film not for everyone - the storyline is not mainstream and hard to relate to if you do not understand the emotional turmoil of aging. It was unusual in that the frequent nudity was of the older and fatter female tourists - it certainly added to the story - but quite unusual for a film.

Seidl sets out to shock and as usual he succeeds.

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 26 February 2021]

You know where you stand with a Ulrich Seidl film; usually on the edge of a precipice and you know whichever way you fall the outcome is unlikely to be pleasant. Seidl is a director out to shock us; you may hate his films and see them as exploitative but you are unlikely to ever forget them. "Paradise Love" was the first in a trilogy very roughly based around the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity but if you're unfamiliar with his work, be warned; piety and what we perceive as the attributes usually associated with religion are conspicuously absent.

This first film in the trilogy is set in Kenya and deals with sex tourism, in this case women who go there with the sole purpose of having sex with the boys who hang around the beach and outside the hotels. Sex is their profession and it seems everyone is on the make. The tourists exploit the locals who exploit them in return. Seidl films all of this in the most matter-of-fact way; we could be watching a documentary.

What plot there is revolves around Teresa, (a superb and utterly fearless Margarete Tiesel), an Austrian woman who comes looking for sex but wanting love and who falls under the spell of Munga, (Peter Kazungu, one of many non-professionals in the cast). At first he's the boy who doesn't harass her on the beach or seems interested in her money but he has his own agenda and while other directors might milk this material for purely 'dramatic' effect, Seidl approaches it more as an anthropologist might, studying both sides at once and treating no-one with much respect. This is a film about racism and it leaves a very sour aftertaste. In its clinically chilly fashion it's a horror movie that will alienate many.

A tale of finding love

[Reno-Rangan · 8/10 · 27 December 2013]

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.

Exploitative of the actors!

[ma-murdershewrote · 6/10 · 21 June 2013]

This is a super film in many respects. Beautifully filmed. Interesting issues. And sensitive approach.

But some of the sex scenes were exploitative of the actors, particularly the first and last sex scene (the rest were fine and gave a real sense of what was going on).

I thought that it was a terrible irony that the director was making a point about sexual exploitation, when he was in effect sexually exploiting these actors, very tawdry and morally questionable.

Otherwise, I would have given the film an 8 or 9. And was tempted to give it a 1 because of this.

Stripper Boy

[Lute · 8/10 · 15 October 2017]

I take issue with an earlier review that referred to this character as a "witless African Boy" given to Teresa to fondle on her birthday. This whole scene turns on his performance. His lightness, elegance and grace as a dancer contrast to the crude slouching and humping of the women, including Teresa, who were fixated on getting him erect. In short, the stripper has the moral high ground here.

good movie

[frtyener · 7/10 · 4 February 2016]

This is a good movie.Location and players were chosen appropriately for he subject.Paradise liebe is actually sex paradise for he middle age and fat women.It is a poor village in Kenya near to the beach and hotel.African black boys not only given a sex service to the ladies against money but also harassing them to sell some souvenirs.As for the birthday party scene in the movie;This is an uncompleted scene in my eyes.Teresa's friends make her a birthday surprise and bring her a black boy for a strip Show.All women play the boy's penis after he completely striped naked.Under this circumstances they all should be aroused sexually.Since young boy had enough energy to satisfy all four women,they should not let him go and continue until they are reaching climax.So this scene was not realistic.I would give 8 points but cut 1 for this uncompleted scene and give 7 of 10.

Like a bastardised version of Shirley Valentine, Ulrich Seidl's movie is too painful to endure.

[octopusluke · 3/10 · 12 December 2012]

Two days after watching Michael Haneke's staggering Amour, I checked in with Austria's other tyrannous filmmaker Ulrich Seidl and his latest movie Paradise: Love (or, Paradies Liebe, in Austrian-German). Nominated for the Palme D'or at this year's Cannes Film Festival (where it actually lost out to Amour), it's the first part of a trilogy looking at the despicable sides of human nature (the following two parts will be screened at festivals in 2013).

Just like his other previous works in documentary (Jesus, You Know) and fiction (Dog Days), Love is an infuriating film; whereby we have no idea where the story is going, and seemingly Seidl doesn't have a clue either. Shot in his trademark static mid shots, with copious amounts of skin on show, it's paradoxically beautiful and grotesque. Like a Lucian Freud painting with just as much of his grandfather's' psychoanalytical subtext, to boot.

Margarete Tiesel plays Teresa, a middle aged single parent living in drab suburban Vienna. The first scene sees her smiling from a distance as she watches a class of disabled children fumble-play on a bumper car track. It's a harrowing, typically nasty opening, and really sets the film off in mean spirited territory, with Seidl doing his token unflinching exploitation gimmick.

From here, Teresa decides to leave her daughter behind at fat camp and flee to Kenya for a paradisiac holiday. Meeting up with her Austrian expat friend (Inge Maux), the pair talk in typically colonialist terms about African culture and black men's genitalia. Later, on her own, she's constantly harangued by the pushy salesmen on the beachfront, trying to sell her homemade necklaces and pearls at tourist prices. Although she's reluctant to purchase their crap, she willingly buys into the perilous sex tourism trade, first as a customer, and later as one of it's scammed victims. Bleak in tone, yet idyllically colourful in palette, the proceeding 90 minutes follows a series of degradations Teresa must go through in her troubled pursuit for paradise.

Similarly to his other work, flesh and body politics play a central role to the narrative, character dynamics and control of the movie. Wandering around in flip flops and skimpy bathing suits, Teresa's slightly rotund exterior is used to exaggerate the character's wealth, decadence and presumed dominance over the comparatively slight, underfed and suffering Kenyans. It's a sentiment made painfully clear in one scene where Teresa partakes in an orgy of sorts where three other overweight German/Austrian women force a lean black Kenyan man to perform for their pleasure, and much to his embarrassment.

Whilst this may be the most palatable of Seidl's fiction films, it's certainly not an easy watch. At an excessive two hours, he wallows for too long in the audiences' discomfort without ever given us a worthwhile pay-off. Whilst the landscape is filmed beautifully by regular cinematographer Wolfgang Thaler, this bastardised version of Shirley Valentine is a pretty loveless film experience.

More reviews at www.366movies.com