Paradise: Hope
Dir: Ulrich Seidl
2013
****
Ulrich Seidl's Paradise Trilogy, based on the theological virtues of Love, Faith and Hope, revolve around three related women, each of which have their own film. The ideology of the three virtues being paradise are each delivered with a dry but humorous twist and with contemporary themes. Love saw Teresa travel to Kenya as a sex tourist during her vacation while in Faith, her sister Anna Maria decides to stay at home and do missionary work to save the souls of Austria. Hope sees Melanie (Teresa's daughter, Anna Maria's Niece) carted off against her will to fat camp during her school holidays. The irony that her mother is fairly overweight isn't lost on those that have watched the first two films. Melanie is a typically unmotivated late teen who fits in well with the others in the camp. Their days include hours of monotonous exercise and outdated motivational tasks. The kids scoff their faces with hidden chocolate in the evenings and start to misbehave the more and more the confidence tasks they endure. This is a brilliantly observed and socially overlooked aspect of certain methods of education. This takes an uncomfortable and unexpected turn as the young overweight Melanie flirts with the camp doctor who obviously has a taste for the young and vulnerable. Hope is sickly sweet but is a fascinating companion piece to the first film, with the second film somehow out of place in the trilogy. I'm a fan of dark humour and pushing the boundaries, Hope came uncomfortably close to my limit but makes some valid points and asks interesting question of ourselves. A real one off trilogy worth investigating.

Paradise: Faith
Dir: Ulrich Seidl
2012
****
Ulrich Seidl's Paradise Trilogy, based on the theological virtues of Love, Faith and Hope, revolve around three related women, each of which have their own film. The ideology of the three virtues being paradise are each delivered with a dry but humorous twist and with contemporary themes. Faith sees Anna Maria, sister of Teresa and Aunt of Melanie (both of who are explored further in the 1st and 3rd parts of the trilogy respectively) continue her missionary work during her annual leave as a clinic technician. Ulrich Seidl has a history of exploring aspects of religion in his films and seems to have issue with Catholicism especially. It's not really just a simple swipe at Christianity though but more of a exploration of a missionary and the idea behind being one. Seidl explores the hardship and punishment people inflict on themselves in the name of their faith and the hypocrisies that can often surface in doing so. The film crawls at a snails pace but this is more than made up for in the second half when the pace picks up and things get pretty dark. All three films are beautifully composed but this one is extra special in that there is no location other than Anna Maria's house. Seidl find the beauty, horror and humour and the ordinary and mundane.

Paradise: Love
Dir: Ulrich Seidl
2012
****
Ulrich Seidl's Paradise Trilogy, based on the theological virtues of Love, Faith and Hope, revolve around three related women, each of which have their own film. The ideology of the three virtues being paradise are each delivered with a dry but humorous twist and with contemporary themes.
Love sees Teresa, mother of Melanie and sister of Anna Maria (both of who are explored further in the 2nd and 3rd parts of the trilogy) travel to Kenya as a sex tourist. Here we see Teresa mistake sex for love and vice versa, while the film is open to interpretation I believe the concept of the film is to point out that this is not necessarily a new issue but very much a human one. Seidl sets the scene in a contemporary setting but in using the virtues written about in biblical times he is showing us both the differences and glaring similarities. Why don't we learn? I guess that's not the point but this focused study of the human condition is definitely food for thought, uncomfortable at times and also quite funny but always real. It is provocative but it is so brilliantly open to interpretation that your reaction will say far more about you rather than the film. Every second and every frame is beautifully shot, I found it a joy to watch - even in the troubling scenes. Certainly the strongest of the Trilogy.