Paradise (2016 film)

Paradise (Рай; Ray) is a 2016 Russian drama film produced and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. At Venice Konchalovsky won the Silver Lion for Best Director. It was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. In December 2016, it made the shortlist of nine films to be considered for a nomination at the 89th Academy Awards.

Plot
The film is built around the intertwining destinies of three main characters during the Second World War: aristocratic Russian émigré and member of the French Resistance Olga (Yuliya Vysotskaya), Jules (Philippe Duquesne) an administrator in the French police department and a French collaborator, and a high-ranking SS officer Helmut (Christian Clauß).

Olga is arrested for hiding Jewish children from the Nazi roundups. Her case is overseen by Jules. He is interested in her and accepts her offer of sex in exchange for the release of a Russian prisoner she knows, but Jules is murdered by the French resistance before this occurs. Olga lands in a German concentration camp. There she meets Helmut, who in the past was hopelessly in love with her. Strange and painful relations commence between them.

The Nazis are already close to defeat, and Helmut decides to save Olga from the camp and run away with her to South America. Olga, having lost hope of freedom agrees, but at the last moment realizes that her idea of paradise has changed.

Cast

 * Yuliya Vysotskaya as Olga
 * Christian Clauß as Helmut
 * Philippe Duquesne as Jules
 * Peter Kurth as Krause
 * Jakob Diehl as Vogel
 * Viktor Sukhorukov as Heinrich Himmler
 * Vera Voronkova as Rosa

Critical response
Paradise has an approval rating of 70% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 23 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Paradise hits hard and lingers, although viewers who've seen a number of other Holocaust-set dramas may find it all a bit familiar". It also has a score of 52 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".