SYNOPSIS
Her mother goes off to Kenya in search of beach boys willing to provide her with amorous services. Her staunchly Catholic aunt is absorbed in house-to-house evangelism. Thus, thirteen-year-old Melanie spends the holidays in a diet camp in the Austrian mountains. In-between physical training and nutritional counseling, nightly pillow fights and a secret bout of binge drinking at the local disco, she falls in love with the doctor and camp director, who is forty years her senior. Melanie uses all her seductive wiles to win him over…
In the third part of his 'paradise' trilogy Seidl pits the deep-seated human desire for love and security against harsh reality. From the sterile surroundings of the diet camp, Seidl filters impeccably pristine, minimalist images in which any hint of sensuality, passion or anarchy would appear to be a complete anathema. Paradse: Hope is the most tender of the three ‘paradise’ films, for his young protagonists bear within them a spark of hope that love is not just an illusion, but can be an honest and powerful emotion.
CAST & CREW
Ulrich Seidl
Director
Producer(s)
Michael Andre, Philippe Bober, Christine Ruppert, Ulrich Seidl, Konstantin Seitz
Script
Ulrich Seidl, Veronika Franz
Director of Photography
Edward Lachman,Wolfgang Thaler
Production designer
Roland Hablesreiter, Max Linder
Sound
Ekkehart Baumung
Edit
Christof Schertenleib
Cast
Melanie Lenz, Verena Lehbauer, Joseph Lorenz
Production company(ies)
Ulrich Seidl Film Production GmbH, Société Parisienne de Production, Tatfilm
Ulrich Seidl
Born 1952, Vienna, Austria․ Ulrich Seidl is the director of numerous award-winning documentaries such as Jesus, You Know, Models and Animal Love. His work methods include achieving the greatest possible authenticity and showing people in the most solitary and personal moments- has aroused intense debate. His first fiction feature Dog Days won the Grand Jury Special Prize at the 2001 Venice IFF. Seidl’s second feature film Import/Export has been sold to 20 countries. The film has won three prizes (Bangkok, Golden Apricot, Yerevan and Palic Tower (for the best acting ensemble Palic (Serbien). The film has been invited to about 80 festivals so far including Munich, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Sarajevo, Toronto, London, Copenhagen, Sao Paolo and Seoul. Two retrospective screenings (in La Rochelle and Sarajevo) have shown Ulrich Seidl’s previous work, with two further retrospectives in Belgium and Sweden. Seidl’s 2012 film Paradise: Love competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes IFF.
Filmography
One Forty (1980, doc., short), The Prom (1982), Look 84 (1984), Good News: von Kolporteuren, toten Hunden undanderen Wienern (1990, doc.), Loss Is to Be Expected (1992, doc.), The Last Real Men (1994, doc.), Animal Love (1995), Bilder einer Ausstelung (1996, TV doc.), The Bosom Frined (1997, TV doc.), Fun without Limits (1998, doc.), Models (1999), Dog Days (2001), State of the Nation: Austria in Six Chapters (2001, doc.), Jesus, You Know (2003, doc.), Brothers, Let Us Be Merry (2006, doc.), Import/Export (2007), Paradise: Love (2012), Paradise: Faith (2012), Paradise: Hope (2013).
