''Paradise'' (russian: Рай; ''Ray'') is a 2016 Russian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

produced and directed by

Andrei Konchalovsky Andrei Sergeyevich Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky (russian: link=no, Андрей Сергеевич Михалков-Кончаловский; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian filmmaker. He has worked in Soviet, Hollywood, and contemporary Russian ...

. It was selected to compete for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguis ...

at the

73rd Venice International Film Festival The 73rd annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August to 10 September 2016. English director Sam Mendes was the President of the Jury for the main competition. The opening night film was Damien Chazelle's musical ''La La Lan ...

. At Venice Konchalovsky won the

Silver Lion The Silver Lion ( it, Leone d'argento, also known as Silver Lion for Best Direction) is an annual award presented for best directing achievements in a feature film at official competition section of the Venice Film Festival since 1998. The pri ...

for Best Director. It was selected as the Russian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the 89th Academy Awards. In December 2016, it made the shortlist of nine films to be considered for a nomination at the 89th Academy Awards.

Plot

The film is built around the intertwining destinies of three main characters during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

: aristocratic Russian émigré and member of the French Resistance Olga ( Yuliya Vysotskaya), a French collaborator Jules (

Philippe Duquesne Philippe Duquesne (born 30 June 1965) is a French actor. He is best known for playing in the cult TV series '' Les Deschiens'' (1993–2002), in which he plays alongside Yolande Moreau Yolande Moreau (born 27 February 1953) is a Belgian come ...

), and a high-ranking SS officer Helmut (Christian Clauß). Olga is arrested for hiding Jewish children from the Nazi roundups. Her case is overseen by Jules. He is interested in her and it seems that in exchange for sexual relations, he is ready to soften the fate of the prisoner, but this does not happen. A chimeric hope of freedom is replaced by cruel reality – Olga lands in a German concentration camp. There she meets Helmut, who in the past was hopelessly in love with her. Strange and painful relations commence between them. The Nazis are already close to defeat, and Helmut decides to save Olga from the camp and run away with her to South America. Olga, having lost hope of freedom agrees, but at the last moment realizes that her idea of paradise has changed.

Cast

* Yuliya Vysotskaya as Olga * Christian Clauß as Helmut *

as Jules *

Peter Kurth Peter Kurth (born 4 April 1957) is a German actor. He won the 2016 German Film Award for Best Actor for portraying a former boxer diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the drama film ''A Heavy Heart''. Early life Kurth was born on 4 A ...

as Krause * Jakob Diehl as Vogel *

Viktor Sukhorukov Viktor Ivanovich Sukhorukov PAR (russian: Виктор Иванович Сухоруков; born 10 November 1951) is a Russian actor. He has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows since 1974. He starred in '' Happy Days'' (1991), ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

* Vera Voronkova as Rosa

Reception

Critical response

''Paradise'' has an approval rating of 70% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 23 reviews, and an average rating of 7.50/10.The website's critical consensus states, "''Paradise'' hits hard and lingers, although viewers who've seen a number of other Holocaust-set dramas may find it all a bit familiar". It also has a score of 52 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paradise 2016 films 2016 drama films 2010s German-language films 2010s Russian-language films Russian drama films Russian black-and-white films German drama films German black-and-white films Films directed by Andrei Konchalovsky German World War II films Cultural depictions of Heinrich Himmler Russian World War II films 2010s German films