Paradise | Telescope Film
Paradise

Paradise (Рай)

Critic Rating

(read reviews)

User Rating

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.

Stream Paradise

What are critics saying?

75

Slant Magazine by Chuck Bowen

Andrei Konchalovsky's film is more than an exercise, as pitiless moments accumulate with enraged relentlessness.

70

Variety by Guy Lodge

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.

60

CineVue by John Bleasdale

There's a lot that's wonderful about Andrei Konchalovsky's Holocaust drama Paradise and yet there's something fundamentally wrong with the film.

50

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.

50

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.

40

Screen Daily 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.

40

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.

40

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.