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Austria, Germany, France · 2012
2h 0m
Director Ulrich Seidl
Starring Margarethe Tiesel, Peter Kazungu, Inge Maux, Dunja Sowinetz
Genre Drama
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On the beaches of Kenya they're known as "Sugar Mamas" — European women who seek out African boys selling sex to earn a living. Teresa, a 50-year-old Austrian, and mother of a daughter entering puberty, travels to this vacation paradise, but learns that love is strictly a business on Kenya’s beaches.
The importance of Tiesel’s performance here can’t be overstated, and even during what is easily the most excruciating birthday-party scene involving cock ribbons ever, the actor lends an incredibly profound sense of sorrow to the film’s pitilessness.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Superficially provocative but ultimately pointless, this is one punishing vacation.
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
It often seems more intent on spelling out its awareness of the politics involved than in lingering on the aching human engaged in the libidinal transactions.
Repulsive and sublimely beautiful, arguably celebratory and damning of its characters, it’s hideous and masterful all at once, “Salo” with sunburn.
Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan
Paradise: Love, the first in a thematic trilogy, is a sad story about the difficulty individuals face when trying to establish relationships across vast cultural and economic gulfs.
Teresa's doggedness parallels the movie's own. Paradise: Love would be more compelling if it had a second act in which either its protagonist or one of her boy toys came to some sort of realization. Instead, Seidl's strategy is to reiterate and escalate, which is finally more exhausting than illuminating.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
It might be the most lonesome film about a tropical vacation we've seen, and the greatest film ever made about the weird socioeconomics of tourism.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
For better and for worse—often simultaneously—few movies have been as unflinching about the ugly, heartbreaking ways human beings can mutually exploit one another for fun and/or profit.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Does the film tell us anything we didn't know already? And could anyone expect anything but the most straightforward irony in the title? The answer to both questions is no – but there is undoubted technique, and an authorial address to the audience.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
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.
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