Paradise (2016 film)


Paradise is a 2016 Russian drama film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. At Venice Konchalovsky won the Silver Lion for Best Director. It was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film 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: Russian aristocrat-emigrant and member of the French Resistance Olga, a French collaborator Jules and a high-ranking SS officer Helmut.
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