In the tradition of kitchen sink realism of Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay, Mika Gustafson's feature debut Paradise is Burning paints young sisters trying to survive in a Swedish working-class neighborhood. There's a teenager Laura (Bianca Delbravo), the oldest of the sisters and the head of the family and two preteens Mira (Dilvin Asaad) and Steffi (Safira Mossberg), running wild in a household without any parental supervision. Mom's gone since Christmas and dad was never in the picture. Steffi still wets the bed. She is teething and has a bad tendency to bring stray dogs (and sometimes street kids her age) home - there's a theme of strays throughout the film, Mira is having her first menstruation and getting an attention from a local drunk at the pub. To have the house in order, Laura is skipping school to take care of her younger sisters.
Things are tight, so Laura resorts, with the help of her sisters, to stealing clothes and food from their neighbor’s backyard cloth lines, laundromats, supermarkets and corner stores. She and her marauding strays/friends constantly break into rich people's houses to party and swim in their pools.
Laura befriends a bored housewife, Hanna (Ida Engvoll), when she escapes the police at one of such pool parties and ends up in Hanna’s house. Hanna finds Laura's lawless behavior fascinating. The young girl’s feral, seemingly free existence stir something inside her. Hanna suggests that she wants to tag along when Laura breaks into other people's houses. For Laura, Hanna is an obvious mother figure, constantly seeking her company. Their bond deepens. But it’s a lopsided affair. Obviously, Laura has a lot more at stake.
There’s a heartbreaking scene that shows Laura, however tough and carefree she presents herself, is still a child needing attention from an adult, as she waits Hanna’s phone call and how extremely delighted she gets when she receives them. It’s not a healthy relationship by any social, moral standards.
Laura hides the fact that social services are on their case from her younger siblings. She knows that like other neighborhood friends she knows, the social services will try to separate them and put them in different foster care facilities. She cannot let that happen. As the appointment for a visit from the social services approaches, Laura slowly breaches the subject to Hanna, of pretending to be their mom.
Gustafson gets phenomenal performances out of young actresses. Delbravo's Laura, a girl who's been put in a position to grow up fast is great, as is Asaad and Mossberg who play Mira and Steffi. They are utterly believable at playing close sisters who put enormous amounts of trust in one another. Paradise is Burning brims with vitality and emotional honesty seldom seen in teen/preteen films beautifully captured by Gustafson. A real stunner.
Things are tight, so Laura resorts, with the help of her sisters, to stealing clothes and food from their neighbor’s backyard cloth lines, laundromats, supermarkets and corner stores. She and her marauding strays/friends constantly break into rich people's houses to party and swim in their pools.
Laura befriends a bored housewife, Hanna (Ida Engvoll), when she escapes the police at one of such pool parties and ends up in Hanna’s house. Hanna finds Laura's lawless behavior fascinating. The young girl’s feral, seemingly free existence stir something inside her. Hanna suggests that she wants to tag along when Laura breaks into other people's houses. For Laura, Hanna is an obvious mother figure, constantly seeking her company. Their bond deepens. But it’s a lopsided affair. Obviously, Laura has a lot more at stake.
There’s a heartbreaking scene that shows Laura, however tough and carefree she presents herself, is still a child needing attention from an adult, as she waits Hanna’s phone call and how extremely delighted she gets when she receives them. It’s not a healthy relationship by any social, moral standards.
Laura hides the fact that social services are on their case from her younger siblings. She knows that like other neighborhood friends she knows, the social services will try to separate them and put them in different foster care facilities. She cannot let that happen. As the appointment for a visit from the social services approaches, Laura slowly breaches the subject to Hanna, of pretending to be their mom.
Gustafson gets phenomenal performances out of young actresses. Delbravo's Laura, a girl who's been put in a position to grow up fast is great, as is Asaad and Mossberg who play Mira and Steffi. They are utterly believable at playing close sisters who put enormous amounts of trust in one another. Paradise is Burning brims with vitality and emotional honesty seldom seen in teen/preteen films beautifully captured by Gustafson. A real stunner.
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