''Paradise'' is a 2023 Sri Lankan-Indian co-produced

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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

, co-written and directed by

Prasanna Vithanage Udaya Prasanna Vithanage () (born 14 March 1962) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most talented and influential filmmakers in South Asia. He is known for thought-provoking films that often deals with social, polit ...

. The film is presented by

Mani Ratnam Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. H ...

and

Siva Ananth Siva Ananth (also credited as A. Sivakumar) is an Indian film writer, producer, lyricist, director and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Siva made his directorial debut with the Telugu film ''Chukkallo Chandrudu'' (2006). He later ...

under the

Madras Talkies Madras Talkies is an Indian entertainment company, which was established by director Mani Ratnam and his brother G. Srinivasan as partners in 1995. Madras Talkies has actively involved in production of films and television serials, which are d ...

banner and produced by Newton Cinema. It stars Roshan Mathew,

Darshana Rajendran Darshana Rajendran is an Indian actress and playback singer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. Darshana is best known for her performance in the 2022 films—''Hridayam'' and '' Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey''. The latter earned her Filmfare ...

Shyam Fernando Shyam Fernando () is an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama, and television. He is a dubbing artist and has been nominated for several dramatic roles. Career Fernando started his drama career under Somalatha Subasinghe with Play House Kott ...

and

Mahendra Perera Mahendra Shrikantha Perera (born 17 August 1956: ), is an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama and television. One of the most influential actors in Sinhala cinema, Mahendra performed from drama to comedy in many blockbuster films. Persona ...

and tells the story of a married couple whose anniversary vacation goes awry in Sri Lanka. ''Paradise'' had its world premiere at the

28th Busan International Film Festival The 28th Busan International Film Festival () opened on October 4 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea. Song Kang-ho of ''Parasite (2019 film), Parasite'' fame welcomed filmmakers as host of the festival, while Park Eun-bin acted as ...

on 7 October 2023, where it won the Kim Jiseok Award.

Synopsis

An Indian tourist couple arrives in the hill country of

crisis A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

-ridden

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. As events take an unexpected turn conflicts deepen, revealing cracks in their relationship.

Cast

* Roshan Mathew as Kesav *

as Amritha *

as Mr. Andrew (Tour Guide) *

as Sergeant Bandara * Sumith Ilango as Shree * Azher Samsoodeen as Iqbal * Neeraja Rajendran as Amritha's Mother

Release

''Paradise'' had its world premiere at the

on 7 October 2023 where it won the Kim Jiseok Award. The film was screened at the

Mumbai Film Festival The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a public trust that organises the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in the city of Mumbai, India. Priyanka Chopra, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is the chairperson of the trust while Shivendra Singh Dungarpur serves ...

in the “Icons: South Asia” section on 29 October 2023 for its South Asia premiere . ''Paradise'' had its European premiere at the 30^th Vesoul International Film Festival 2024. Subsequent premieres included the

Beijing International Film Festival The Beijing International Film Festival (), abbreviated BJIFF, is a film festival in Beijing, China. Founded in 2011, along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of China's two biggest film festivals. The festival is one of ...

in China, the Red Lotus Asian Film Festival in Austria, and the Asiatiska Film Festival 2024 in Sweden. The North American premiere took place at the

New York Indian Film Festival The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in New York City, and screens films relating to India, the Indian Diaspora, and the work of Indian filmmakers. The festival began in November 2001 and was foun ...

2024 and the Australian premiere occurred at the

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. , the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

2024. ''Paradise'' was featured in the “Features” section of the 71st Sydney Film Festival on June 13, 2024. The film was released in theatres worldwide on 28 June 2024 and is now available on streaming platforms including

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

, Manorama Max and Simply South.

Festival appearances

Reception

On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, '' Paradise'' has an approval rating of 100% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10 . Lee Marshall reviewing for

ScreenDaily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned ''Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involve ...

at Busan wrote, "Moving through the narrative with admirable dexterity, despite some contrived passages, it's a well-made drama buoyed up by a raft of fine performances ."

Saibal Chatterjee Saibal Chatterjee is an Indian film critic, editor and documentary screenwriter. He was a columnist at ''BBC News'', ''Business Standard'', ''Hindustan Times'' and '' The Financial Express''. He has also written for ''The Telegraph'', ''The Tim ...

reviewing for

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

rated the film 4.5/5 and wrote, "Unswerving in its grasp of both philosophy and psychology, Prasanna Vithanage's Paradise is a masterly evocation of the frailty of 'man' when faced with a crisis. "

Santanu Das Santanu Das is an Indian born academic and author, best known for his work on the World War I in literature, literature of the First World War. Since 2019, he has been Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at University of Oxford, Oxford ...

reviewing for ''Hindustan Times'' dubbed the film as "a stirring, important piece of work" and wrote, "As the drama inches its way closer to that shocking denouement, ''Paradise'' grapples to interrogate questions around politics and the state. " Priyanka Sundar reviewing for ''

Firstpost Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions. The Network 18 group was originally owned by Raghav Bahl. In January 2012, the gro ...

'' at Mumbai Film Festival rated the film 3.5/5 and wrote, "By the end, whose side you are on speaks volumes about who you are as a person than of the film itself, the film brings about this reflection of self, and of society with poignancy and that more than anything makes ''Paradise'' a winner. "

Deepa Gahlot Deepa Gahlot is a theater and film critic, book author, and scriptwriter. She has written several books on cinema, translated several plays (by Manav Kaul and Paresh Mokashi) into English and adapted Paulo Coelho's novel ''The Alchemist'' for the s ...

of ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' rated 4/5 stars and observed, "Prasanna Vithanage's ''Paradise'' leaves the audience to read between the lines and draw their own conclusions about the frailty of human nature, and how easily violence seizes the most unexpected prey. "

Accolades

The film won the Kim Jiseok Award at the

Busan International Film Festival The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF; ), formerly the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), held annually in Haeundae District, Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held fro ...

. This award is presented to two outstanding films from the Jiseok competition section, which features new works by Asian directors who have directed more than three feature films.

References

External links

* *
''Paradise''
at BIFF {{Kim Jiseok Award 2023 films 2023 drama films 2020s Malayalam-language films 2020s Sinhala-language films English-language Sri Lankan films Indian drama films Films directed by Prasanna Vithanage Films with screenplays by Prasanna Vithanage Films scored by K (composer) Films shot in Sri Lanka