Paradise is Burning: A Beautiful Film About a Troubled Childhood (Review)

A mother who left without leaving an address, three sisters left to fend for themselves. A thrilling and powerful chronicle.

There is no room here for a long exposition. The three heroines of Paradise is burning literally burst onto the screen. Without introducing themselves. A way of setting the tone: what matters to them is what’s happening here and now and this way of always being on the move, whether they’re stealing from a supermarket or running away from a squatted private swimming pool with their girlfriends before getting caught.

There are three of them: a teenager, Laura and her two younger sisters Steffi and Mira. Laura, the eldest and the head of the family because their mother left the family home. Without leaving an address. Throughout the story, she will be off-screen. The one whose absence must be hidden to prevent the whole tribe from being scattered among foster families. The one that Laura must replace as best she can by protecting and managing the no less explosive natures of Steffi and Mira.

And this at a time in her life when she must face an unprecedented awakening of the senses and manage her heart and her heart that races for a neighbor, the first adult to cast an enveloping gaze on her but with a more ambiguous attitude than it seems. Mika Gustafson succeeds here in making us physically feel the vertigo of the contradictory feelings that sweep her away and threaten to knock her over at any moment.

The crazy energy of the beginning of the film was not gratuitous. It just gave the impression of this thrilling chronicle that has nothing to envy of these great and beautiful films (Nobody knows, Half price…) on these children left to their own devices because of failing or absent adults.

Of Mika Gustafson. With Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, Marta Oldenburg… Duration 1h48. Released on August 28, 2024