The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
Paradise is a strikingly shot Holocaust drama that ultimately seems confused about whose story it’s telling or to what end.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Russia, Germany · 2016
2h 10m
Director Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring Yuliya Vysotskaya, Philippe Duquesne, Viktor Sukhorukov, Vera Voronkova
Genre Drama, War
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The paths of three people cross inextricably during the Second World War: Olga, a Russian aristocratic emigrant and member of the French resistance; Jules, a French-Nazi collaborator; and Helmut, a high-ranking German SS officer who was once in love with Olga. Their stories unfold through interviews and flashbacks that lay bare the complexities of war.
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
Paradise is a strikingly shot Holocaust drama that ultimately seems confused about whose story it’s telling or to what end.
Andrei Konchalovsky's film is more than an exercise, as pitiless moments accumulate with enraged relentlessness.
The film’s tone and outlook is changeable throughout — down to a striking, only semi-successful framing device of docu-style testimonies that hover deliberately between worlds.
There's a lot that's wonderful about Andrei Konchalovsky's Holocaust drama Paradise and yet there's something fundamentally wrong with the film.
Screen International by Jonathan Romney
The Holocaust has undergone some awkward treatments on screen before, but one of the most ungainly recent examples must be Andrei Konchalovsky’s Paradise, a well-intentioned but very soft-edged mess of romance, metaphysics and historical theorising.
The Hollywood Reporter by Neil Young
Strong performances and outstanding cinematography aren't enough to rescue an unfocused and episodic screenplay, which will leave many stranded in a purgatorial cinematic-halfway house between bliss and despair.
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
Paradise and its predictable waltz of suffering, choked consciousness and monstrosity adds little to the problematic subset of camp-themed World War II movies, which feel like nostalgia for hell.
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