Paradise Is Burning

Mika Gustafson's 2023 debut feature follows three sisters left without a mother in a small Swedish town. Laura and her siblings spend an unsupervised summer breaking into swimming pools, wandering into neighbours' houses and making their own rules. When a call from social services puts foster care on the table, the eldest, Laura, starts hunting for a stand-in mother to sit through the meeting. The film refuses to render poverty and neglect through an aesthetic of squalor; the solidarity between the sisters and the daily joy are at the centre, and rather than lightening the situation this makes it more visible. Gustafson works with a closeness carried over from documentary, and the mostly inexperienced cast gives the film its naturalness. It won the best director prize in the Orizzonti section at Venice. Who it's for: viewers who like Nordic realism and stories where children carry adult responsibility. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding content about neglect and child poverty, or expecting the plot to reach a definite resolution.