Paradise: Hope (Paradies: Hoffnung)

Year: 2013
Country: AUSTRIA, GERMANY, FRANCE
Run Time: 91 minutes

While her mother goes to Kenya to frolic in the male sex trade (told of in paradise: love) and her fanatical aunt evangelizes and wars with personal demons (told of in paradise: faith), young Melanie is sent to a diet camp. A sterile environment in the Austrian mountains, Melanie’s days are a dull routine of exercise, nutritional counseling, and sneaking off to the local disco to drink. But Melanie has a young woman’s blossoming hopes for a romantic and passionate life, and this cold environment offers no outlet for it. As a result, Melanie becomes obsessed with the camp’s doctor and director, a man 40 years her senior. Obsession soon turns to love. In rebellion against the orderly and antiseptic world around her, she will exert every seductive tool at her command to bring her fantasies to life. The third chapter in Ulrich Seidl’s extraordinary Paradise Trilogy, PARADISE: HOPE brings his themes of love and faith warring with reality to a remarkable, and hopeful conclusion. (In German with subtitles) – C.R.

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