Paradise trilogy

Paradise
DVD cover
Directed by	Ulrich Seidl
Produced by	Ulrich Seidl
Written by	Ulrich Seidl Veronika Franz
Cinematography	Wolfgang Thaler Ed Lachman
Edited by	Christof Schertenleib
Production company	Ulrich Seidl Film
Country	Austria
Language	German

Paradise (German: Paradies) is the collective name of three films directed by Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Love (2012), Paradise: Faith (2012) and Paradise: Hope (2013). They focus on three women from one family; one of them travels to Kenya as a sex tourist, one has to spend time at a weight loss camp, and one tries to propagate Catholicism. The project is an Austrian majority production with co-producers in Germany and France. It was conceived as one feature film, but after a long gestation became three entries forming a trilogy. The first installment, Paradise: Love, competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Seidl originally planned to premiere all three films at the same event, but after the Cannes selection decided to roll out parts two and three, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope, at other major film festivals. The individual films are named after the three theological virtues, and focus on how the protagonists conceive their view of paradise.

The project was conceived as one 130-minute feature film. The majority producer of the film was the director's Austrian company Ulrich Seidl Film, with Germany's Tat Film and France's Société Parisienne as co-producers. Further co-production support came from the broadcasters ORF, Arte and Degeto. The project received funding from the Austrian Film Institute, Filmfonds Wien, Land Niederösterreich, Eurimages, the French National Center of Cinematography and Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg. Filming took place between 22 October 2009 and 14 September 2010 in Kenya and Vienna.