 |
We meet Anna, a religious fundamentalist and spreader of the good word whose feelings for her saviour are far from sacred. Anna attempts to keep her emotions at bay by balancing her private moments of weakness with horrendous sessions of self-flagellation. Despite all this and in a quite welcoming twist, Anna is strangely likable. While being in no way relatable she has an earnestness which borders on endearing.
Anna makes the occasional house call, converting and blessing whatever she can, but aside from these excursions the bulk of the film takes place in her apartment. An oppressive and static world precisely framed with strict right angles and parallel lines. The colour system manages to excite and numb accordingly. A dreamlike pale blue for Anna’s prayer group; a stale orange for the kitchen; and a muddy olive green for the bedroom, the setting of her most intimate and base moments.
It all may sound like a crude exercise in provocation but the real dark pleasures of this film do not lie in its tragedy but in its humour. Even those with the most lax sense of PCness won’t see it coming and just wait till Anna’s crippled, Muslim and very horny husband shows up. What a pair these absurd humans make. Physical humour just doesn’t get any darker.
Paradise: Faith is destined to polarize audiences. I challenge anyone to see it and not come out strongly opinionated, one way or another. It’s perhaps a well-worn cliché but a necessary one none the less; any work of art which can garner these sorts of reactions, good or bad, is most definitely worthwhile. This is film making at its most bold and daring.
