Paradise: Love

The African catchphrase “Hakuna matata” arises in shockingly non-Disney context in Ulrich Seidl's feature, which—if rated—would earn an NC-17 for its explicit nudity and sexual content. Heavyset 50-year-old Austrian single mom Teresa (Margarete Tiesel) is vacationing in beachside Kenya, where she meets a trio of similar Teutonic women who are on an idyll to enjoy sun, sand, and sex with strapping young African men. And there seems to be no shortage of German- (and English) speaking Kenyan guys, wanting to sell visitors anything they can, including themselves. Initially hesitant, Teresa is won over by Munga (Peter Kazungu), a seeming gallant who becomes her lover and asks for no payment, happily introducing Teresa to Kenyan life outside of the tourist havens. Before long, however, Teresa starts donating to Munga's suffering relatives, and the relationship turns exploitative after all. Paradise: Love offers a bleak view of very modern colonialism from both sides—the parasitic gigolos and the lascivious sex-tourist females, who take advantage of each other (only Teresa makes the mistake of believing she has found something genuine). Seidl adopts an unadorned documentary-like style for this first film in his Paradise trilogy,. Recommended for more adventurous collections. (C. Cassady)