Paradise Love

This first instalment of a trilogy based around the themes of love, faith and hope by austere Austrian director Ulrich Seidl is very much titled ironically. Beginning in a well-to-do but nondescript suburban housing estate, the film follows middle-aged single mother Teresa (Margarete Tiesel) as she drops her cat and teenage daughter off with her sister and embarks on a holiday in a Kenyan seaside resort. What soon becomes clear is that Teresa is in the market for a no-strings companion, and her naive attempts to engage with the local gigolos are alternately laughable and heartbreaking. For those willing to engage with the subject matter, Paradise Love is uncomfortable yet definitely rewarding, an explicit film about sex tourism that not only deals head-on with issues of class and racism but also asks awkward questions about the power balance of prostitution - making its protagonist a woman is a masterstroke, and Tiesel gives a fearless performance.