Paradise Is Burning Review

​What do three sisters do during the summer when their mother has disappeared and a visit from social services is on the horizon? Paradise is Burning from Swedish director Mika Gustafson palpably gives us a glimpse into a trio navigating just this reality, with the eldest, 16-year-old Laura (Biana Delbravo) trying to take on the mother role to her sisters Mira (Dilvin Asaad) and Steffi (Safira Mossberg), 12 and 7, respectively. Their days initially seem light and punctuated by sibling laughter, meals together, swimming with friends and lolling about in fields, but the difficult realities of being young, abandoned children trying to survive soon start weaving their way in.

​Delbravo as Laura gives a memorable performance, skilfully embodying the confusion and stress of being a teenager while trying to mother her sisters. Laura is keeping the impending visit from social services a secret from Mira and Steffi, adding further weight to her shoulders. An unexpected encounter and bond with Hannah (Ida Engvoll), a woman in her 30s, gives Laura an outlet, Laura unconsciously seeking in Hannah a friend, a mother, and a saviour, eventually encountering romantic stirrings. Hannah seeks escape from her seemingly calm, organized life and dips into the chaos that follows Laura, who is aching to bring a slice of Hannah’s stability home to her sisters, and in time, Hannah’s issues begin to surface.

​As Mira becomes resentful of Laura’s unexplained outings, she neglects her responsibilities to supervise Steffi and decides to coach a neighbour’s boyfriend, Sasha (Mitja Siren), as he competes in karaoke. The lack of any reasonable guardians to step in and guide 12-year-old Mira away from the dark, depressing bar she begins to frequent nightly is stark. As the film unfolds, we experience each sister wanting to prove she is in control and self-sufficient while each slowly loses her grasp, their shared summer paradise quietly burning a little more as each day es.

Gustafson beautifully demonstrates how people influence one another, paralleling experiences without belabouring the point. Days after Laura rescues Mira from a school bully, Steffi wanders after a stray dog by herself, beating an abandoned chair with a stick and shouting in the same manner as Laura at the bully. It is a heartbreaking display of an emotionally wounded child mimicking the mother figure in her life, not understanding that Laura is still a child herself.

The film also explores recurring themes of wrestling, searching, loneliness and milestones of womanhood and growth. Celebrations with girlfriends in the fields are beautiful to watch, and there is relief in knowing these young children and teenagers are watching out for each other. However, Gustafson ensures we do not forget that the parties are unsupervised, with underage drinking and smoking, that the sisters have been abandoned and that the looming visit by social services grows closer by the day—and so, too, does the threat of the final incineration of their family unit.

Paradise is Burning is an accomplished work filled with realistic, strong performances that explores multigenerational trauma and sisterhood’s tenderness and complexities but also demonstrates how, at the end of each day, what these sisters are seeking is what everyone ultimately seeks: love, kindness, connection and stability.

★★★★

In UK & Irish cinemas now / Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, Safira Mossberg, Ida Engvoll, Mitja Siren, Marta Oldenburg / Dir: Mika Gustafson / 12A / Conic