Paradise: Love

Austrian sugar mamas looking for a good time in Kenya. Seidl’s background as a documentary filmmaker is apparent in this confronting and grotesque film about sex tourism. Unpleasantly accurate, he describes the fuzzy grey area between a sex customer and a victim. Middle age single mother Theresa travels to Kenya, tempted by its tropical sun and beautiful, African men. Starved for intimacy she meets Munga, the charming gigolo who doesn’t care about saggy breasts or cellulite. Well aware of her own role as a sugar mama, she still refuses to see it as Munga starts asking for more and more money. tr

Suitable for persons 15 years and older.

Seidl has a long track record of provocative films. His 2001 breakthrough, Dog Days (2001), was a collage of dismal Austrian suburban lives. Frame by frame, Seidl shows us what we do not want to see. Paradise: Love was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.