It happens in the twenty first century, when sex is no longer forbidden to think of or talk about even in the most public encounters. Sexuality, eroticism and sometimes hardcore porn are displayed without curtain with a fair, fast and open minded attitude in the most numerous domains and activity fields.
People have changed their perception by making the transition from main dating towards adult dating, the casual no strings attached type of fun. Adults responsibly taking advantage one of each other are exposed from the popular online dating industry to the even more popular film industry. The best example is also the latest one so here is the controversial saucy story of the Austrian film director Ulrich Seidl and his “Paradise: Love” production…
Back in 2007, he came with “Import/Export”, a movie that literally scandalized the showcases of all international cinemas. Dealing with Russian women becoming prostitutes in the West, “Import/Export” left everyone mouth opened with the famous scene of the amateur actress performing live oral sex to an actor previously forced to bark like a dog while crawling on all four.
The new production however sets women as main consumers and reveals the story of a 50 years old woman, Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel). A single woman with a teenage daughter hard to control, she decides she deserves a break and heads on her own towards the east of Kenya. There, on the white sandy coast, she meets a group of middle aged women, sugar mamas, who give cash to younger local men for sexual favors in an attempt of getting over the unsatisfying treatment they receive at home.
The whole idea of the plot is simply exposed by Tiesel who sees the movie as a projection of “female loneliness that takes hold when you reach a certain age and no longer look like someone from an advert.”
What will once again cause contradictory reactions is the entire nudity and sex scenes making the juice of a production where Teresa appears completely naked and while coupling with hot Kenyan boys in a striking eroticism.
Her first approach of a beach boy is less successful as he rushes things and makes Teresa break off the tryst.
With Munga (Peter Kuzungu) coming up on her list, things seem to be working well, only that the charming man anxiously looking to improve his western seduction skills proves to be an even worse choice – his poor sister and the baby she has, for who Munga gets paid by Teresa are, in fact, his wife and child.
The fun ends up with a jealousy crisis from Teresa, who beats him on a public event in front of everyone. From that point, she decides to go solely for young men with no dignity concerns.
Seidl himself explains his project as an overview on our current society and a focus on the question of “why women like Teresa find themselves so lonely. They go to these places where they think they can get what they need – their desire for happiness, sexuality and tenderness”. However, the director underlines the fact that the young African men take everything as a business and have their own advantages.
With “Import/Export” Ulrich Seidl got a nomination for the Palme d’Or prize at Cannes film festival and won the Olden Apricot reward – Grand Prix – at Yerevan International film festival in 2007. Will “Paradise: Love” have at least the same success? Hard to tell, particularly as the Hollywood Reporter dismissed it by calling the Seidl’s latest work as a “tawdry little film”, while some critics rushed into labeling it brilliant.