PARADISE: FAITH

PARADISE: FAITH (PARADIES: GLAUBE), 2012
Austria, Germany, France | HDD, Color, 115’ | German, Arabic
Director: Ulrich Seidl
Cast: Maria Hofstätter, René Rupnik, Nabil Saleh

While Teresa goes to Kenya, her sister Anna Maria, an X-ray technician who believes that the path to paradise lies with Jesus, stays in Austria and spends her vacation time traveling from door to door carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary in her hand. While Anna Maria is doing her missionary work, her husband, an Egyptian Muslim who is now confined to a wheelchair, turns up after years of absence. Exploring through marital relationship what it means to carry the cross, the film, again with irony in its title, deals with faithlessness. Maria Hofstatter, the lead actress with whom Seidl has been working since Dog Days (Hundstage) in 2001, carries the entire film on her shoulders.

*The sexual / violent content in some of the scenes in this film may disturb some viewers.