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PARADISE IS BURNING

Paradiset Brinner

Mika Gustafson | 2023 | 108 MINS
Sweden | Subtitles
Preview

Three sisters live alone after their mother’s prolonged absences. When social services demand a family meeting, oldest sister Laura plans to find a stand in for their mother. A superb and quietly powerful film.

In Detail

Sisters Laura (16) (Bianca Delbravo), Mira (12) (Dilvin Asaad) and Steffi (7) (Safira Mossberg), are left to their own devices, and with no parents around, life is wild and carefree, vivacious and anarchic.

But when social services call a meeting, Laura has to find someone to impersonate their mum, or the girls will be taken into foster care and separated. Director Gustafson cleverly frames all the adults through the children’s eyes, making them mostly one-dimensional, whilst the girls are seen as totally full of life. Delbravo delivers a striking performance, balancing Laura’s spiky teenage defiance with the vulnerability of a character who is struggling under the weight of responsibility. Winner of the Best First Feature prize at the 2023 London Film Festival.

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