Without knowing anything more about this, than getting quite OK reviews, I went to see this as they had taken the film I came to see off the day before. Choosing away Skyfall, Stone's Savages and the German film Barbara, because I heard this film was provoking.

It is provoking, at least to many, I'll guess. But I found it to be a very good film, with just as much emphasis on other qualities. The opening scene is simply hilarious, an made the whole crowd instantly fall in a good mood with a LOL-moment, but not without us feeling a tiny bit of shame. This has nothing to do with the film itself, except giving us a glimpse of the main person, Theresa's, background. Completely brilliant way to set tone, and making the audience aware, an f...king hilarious!

We soon see her, as a 50'ish woman preparing for holiday trip to Kenya. Arriving there, we see the obvious goal for a paradise holiday in the sun, and obviously something a lot of German speaking tourists do, as the locals are quite good in German phrases. we are soon seeing that sex tourism is quite big down here, and a reluctant Teresa goes along after getting recommendations from her experienced travel friend, which already is "going steady" with her sugar mama.

As th film plays on, we get a close look at what this sex traffic is all about. Not much prettier than we have learned from men's trips to Thailand or Indonesia. It unravels both he understanding of the reason, as well as the less pretty sides of it. It's shown in a good way, but is more an more showing the unpleasant and nasty sides of it as well. It's after a while thrown Directly and literary in your face.

Director Ulrich Seidl is perhaps taking after his well known and brilliantly provoking countryman Mikael Haneke, and succeeds very well. This is the first if a trilogy starting with "Paradise" as first word in the title. I'll be sure to see the two next ones, as this simply gave me the same great feeling to watch as the first of Kieslowki's "Trois coleurs" back in 1993.

This film is many things at the same time, and a gem for those not to easily offended. It's fun in a quirky Scandinavian way, it's beautifully filmed, and great and neatly told. It doesn't take a stand, but it wants you to do so. It's both beautiful and sad, both funny and tragic, both charming and disgusting. But most if all, it feels very true, and not at all fake. But I think all the laughs here are fabulously loosening up what gives us bad tastes in mouth. It makes the very balanced, even though taking up a severe subject to discussion.

I guess many will have troubles watching the naked bodies, as well as heavily overweight women indulging in sex acts with young local's, but I heavily recommend to give it a shot. This gem won't leave you for a long time. It even gives a great picture of Kenya as a travel goal, with th draw backs of what tourism might lead to. Stunningly good filmmaking and surely something you haven't seen on screen before!

Prostitution, they say, is the world's oldest profession, and can be justified as a mutually beneficial transaction on the basic principles of market economics - if, and it's a big if, the buyer knows what they are getting and the seller is in a position to make a reasonable choice. But often sellers are distressed, making a choice but under terrible constraints; and perhaps some buyers too are looking for something that cannot be bought. Udo Siedel's film 'Love', the first in a trilogy, is about a middle aged Austrian woman who travels to Keyna in search of a sexual adventure to rebuild her sense of self: the result is just sad. I don't know how realistic the scenes depicted in the movie are; but as drama, and not documentary, it's a strange film, depressing and without a conventional narrative arc: there is so clearly no happy ending here for anyone, right from the start, and the protagonists' unappealing nature (on both sides) is offset by the obvious absence of any obvious better choices in their lives. The film is cleverly shaped, and well acted; but it's ultimately unclear what the point is supposed to be, beyond what we might have guessed from the outset.

Do not be fooled by the title of this movie or by what you see at the surface during these 2 hours. Despite the music, the noises and the bright colors, this is a pretty depressing film. And "depressing" does refer to almost everybody in here. First of all, we have a main character who is looking for true love, but finds pretty much nothing but scam until she joins in the exploitation at the end. Then there is the African men. Their struggles do not necessarily have to do with emotion, but with hoping for a better life and not being afraid of abusing other people emotionally as a consequence of their poverty. And finally, it's the other Austrian women in here. If they do what they do with these African men, it tells me that their life back at their home must be truly unsatisfying and out of balance.

"Paradise: Love" is the first film from Ulrich Seidl's "Paradise" trilogy. Obviously lots of irony in that title. The other two films are about religion and adolescence/obesity. But back to this one. Seidl was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won Best Picture at the Austrian film Awards. Lead Actress Margarete Tiesel, who carried this film nicely with how likable yet suffering a character she portrayed, won Best Actress at the same event and was also nominated for a European Film award (that went to Riva). The scene when she talks on her daughter's answering machine is pretty heartbreaking. And even if this is probably my least favorite from the trilogy, it was a good watch. No doubt Seidl is among the finest Austria currently has to offer. And even if you do not care for this film or like it in terms of the action, it is still an interesting watch because it takes us into a culture and society that could not be any more different from the one, in which we live. A film that is painful to watch, yet it's difficult to look away. Well done by Seidl and I certainly recommend it.