Paradise: Hope

Name: Paradise: Hope
Genre: Drama
Released: December 6, 2013
Duration: 92 min
Rating: 78

2013

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Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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6.2

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6.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Strand Releasing | Release Date: December 6, 2013 | Not Rated

Summary: The third installment in Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, Paradise: Hope tells the story of overweight 13-year-old Melanie and her first love. While her mother travels to Kenya (Paradise: Love) and her aunt (Paradise: Faith) does missionary work, Melanie spends her summer vacation at a strict diet camp for overweight teenagers. BetweenThe third installment in Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, Paradise: Hope tells the story of overweight 13-year-old Melanie and her first love. While her mother travels to Kenya (Paradise: Love) and her aunt (Paradise: Faith) does missionary work, Melanie spends her summer vacation at a strict diet camp for overweight teenagers. Between physical education and nutrition counseling, pillow fights and her first cigarette, Melanie falls in love with the camp director, a doctor 40 years her senior. As the doctor struggles with the guilty nature of his desire, Melanie had imagined her paradise differently. [Strand Releasing]… Expand

Director: Ulrich Seidl

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 92 min

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Critic Reviews

100

RogerEbert.com Steven Boone

Dec 18, 2013

When Melanie falls under the spell of a silver-haired pedophile as tall and trim as a Marine (Joseph Lorenz), the film gets set on its rocky path to a conclusion that fulfills the film's title and rounds out the "Paradise" series quite beautifully — if you're not afraid to look. Read full review

Mike D'Angelo

Dec 4, 2013

This tale of a creepy pedophilic relationship is the most tender, nuanced, and deeply felt picture Seidl has ever made. What’s more, there’s no need to have seen the other two films, as Hope works beautifully all by its lonesome. Read full review

David Rooney

Nov 5, 2013

There’s uncustomary warmth here and a sensitivity to the characters’ vulnerabilities that often is missing from this director’s work. Read full review

Betsy Sharkey

Dec 5, 2013

The most hopeful — and the best — of this solid and unsettling series. Read full review

The Playlist Jessica Kiang

Dec 4, 2013

We can't help but feel that by comparison with the meaty and compelling issues he takes on so fearlessly, so scabrously in the other entries, Paradise: Hope ends up somewhat toothless. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

Dec 6, 2013

Seidl's visual style -- bitter-comic three-walled tableaux -- makes the scenario's tension between desire and reality almost unbearable, but Melanie offers hope by simple virtue of her youth, her unformed romantic folly, and her guileless courage. Read full review

Time Out London Trevor Johnston

Nov 5, 2013

Seidl gestures towards understanding rather than confrontation – turning in a slighter, softer-grained film than its predecessors, but no worse for it. Read full review

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User Reviews

mariacalo

Mar 5, 2014

‘Paradise: Hope’ is the last installment in Ulrich Seidl’s ‘Paradise’ trilogy and for one and a half hours it follows the life of Melanie, a 13 year old, and her battle with obesity in a weight loss camp.

Surrounded by many other children with the same condition, Melanie participates in‘Paradise: Hope’ is the last installment in Ulrich Seidl’s ‘Paradise’ trilogy and for one and a half hours it follows the life of Melanie, a 13 year old, and her battle with obesity in a weight loss camp.

Surrounded by many other children with the same condition, Melanie participates in daily physical challenges to relinquish the unwanted kilograms as well as learning about healthy nutritional tips. Melanie is a budding woman, who finds herself at the crucial age of curiosity about life’s intricacies and one way to combat the weight loss boredom is by beginning to explore the new horizons that lay ahead of her.

A brief dialogue with her roommate about the opposite gender, sex and love represents the first clue that Melanie is undergoing a changing process from childhood to adulthood. And it is this transformation that Ulrich Seidl explores in detail with the help of Melanie’s curiosities, desires and the naivety of her young age.
Eventually, the 13 year old falls in love with the diet camp doctor - a svelte gentleman with silver hair and some 40 years her senior. Driven by her pursuits to experience adulthood, Melanie begins to pay daily visits to the medical cabinet in the hope that the doctor will eventually respond to her seductive behaviour. Despite his weakness and paedophilic tendencies, the doctor resists her and in this way Melanie gets to sample the first taste of adulthood: deception.

Of course, our trustfulness will exhort us to believe that what the 13 year old protagonist is experiencing is indeed love but at best, given her very tender age, is nothing but infatuation fuelled by an aggressive amalgam of new sentiments that she is trying to make sense of.

Melanie’s first encounter with life’s game is not strong enough to impede her from continuing with her seductive quest in the ‘hope’ that after all, life is what it appears to be. But the more she tries to seduce the doctor, the sharper the rejections become and this circumstance makes room for an avalanche of self-searching, self-awareness, sadness and more deception at the thought that she is unsuccessful in her attempts thanks to her extra pounds.

In his philosophical vision on life, Seidl explores the naivety and innocence of the young and the risks and dangers they are exposing themselves to without any shred of anticipation or knowledge. Seidl is using the ‘hope’, desires, curiosities and the positive outlook on life of the protagonist in order to strongly underline the status of prey that the young and innocent are exposed to.

When the level of disillusionment finally penetrated Melanie’s confidence in life, she decided to drown her sorrows in alcohol during a night out in town. There, completely wasted, she is lucky not to become the victim of two young male predators on a night out in search of easy prey.

There is no coincidence between Seidl’s choice of a budding woman as the main character and the concept of ‘hope’ that this movie often relates to. Through Melanie’s struggles and optical changes on life, the director is indirectly pointing towards the fact that life is a losing game, and that disillusionment and deception are an integral part of what life has to offer. But from a philosophical point of view, ‘Paradise: Hope’ draws awareness towards society’s traps, prey-predator situations and the fact that no one is exempt from suffering.

On this note, the young and inexperienced Melanie is keen to learn about life’s grandeur and instead, all she finds are dangers, risks, traps and a strong taste of loss. Only, her young age and the subsequent positive impulses that stem from ‘hope’ are strong enough to undermine her first negative encounter with life’s gifts.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

Jul 28, 2023

Paradise: Hope is a bold and thought-provoking film that deftly explores the intricacies of adolescence and the awakening of desires, while fearlessly tackling social taboos.

Set in a teen weight loss camp, the film follows the journey of Melanie, a 13-year-old girl navigating the turbulentParadise: Hope is a bold and thought-provoking film that deftly explores the intricacies of adolescence and the awakening of desires, while fearlessly tackling social taboos.

Set in a teen weight loss camp, the film follows the journey of Melanie, a 13-year-old girl navigating the turbulent waters of adolescence, especially considering the discomfort of battling overweight in a place where everything revolves around it.

But this is only a small part of this film, its dynamic is more focused on fearlessly facing uncomfortable issues of sexuality and the power dynamics between adults and adolescents when she develops a crush on her doctor who is way much older than her, who also has an unprofessional response to it.

Although Paradise: Hope is not intended to please the general public, its daring approach to sensitive issues and bold narrative choices are captivating enough to be really invested in what's developing on screen.

The film's intricacies go beyond the surface, cause it's never that simple, so it manages to provide a richer experience than it appears at first sight.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

LeZee

Dec 27, 2013

The third and final movie of the 'Paradise' trilogy which sets in the summer holiday. Just like the previous two movies this one happens to the parallel timeline but in different locations with different theme and people. The movie which unfolds the story of 'Hope' of a teen girl and herThe third and final movie of the 'Paradise' trilogy which sets in the summer holiday. Just like the previous two movies this one happens to the parallel timeline but in different locations with different theme and people. The movie which unfolds the story of 'Hope' of a teen girl and her summer vacation at weight loss camp. She was left there by her aunt and before that by her mother in her aunt's house. So all the three movies were interconnected by the characters from one family. And this, the last movie of the trilogy briefs the teenagers issues especially the fat ones and their perspective.

The 13 year old Melanie was sent to the weight loss camp in her summer holiday as per the agreement from her mother. As she joins the others from the camp her innocence seemed to be gone. Unexpectedly she undergoes her first love experience and expects to lose her virginity. On the other side of the story, the friends hangout and partying at late night puts further trouble to her relationship with whom she considered her boyfriend.

This final episode of the trilogy portrayed from a girl's angle which definitely stands as the title promised. The director again did not hesitate to give his new and experimental approach to the problems faced by the people in the contemporary world. His bold attempt is what gave us the three spectacular movies which deals on the different contents and characters. Definitely such movies are not made to make money. But to show the people from different parts of the world about the direction of travelling new culture over the old. These movies are not for entertainment, if you are aware what you watching and what's the purpose of it then you won't be a disappoint much. Like I said three movies, three different locations, three different people and for three different audiences (unless you are a movie buff who watch all the three).… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Bestpony

Feb 14, 2014

It's a pleasantly subtle and realistic drama, but not a whole lot happens in it. I suppose it works better as the final part of a trilogy, but I haven't seen the other two and, on its own, Paradise: Hope feels a little too slight.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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