Paradise: Love 2013

50-year-old Teresa, an Austrian woman, embarks on a holiday at a picturesque beach resort in Kenya. Encouraged by other middle-aged women at the resort, she begins to engage with younger men, entering into sexual encounters that ignite in her both desire and doubt. As she enjoys their attention, Teresa constantly grapples with insecurity about her age, weight, and appearance. Despite the young men professing their affection by calling her “Schatz” (treasure) and “love,” she quickly realizes that many of them are more interested in her finances than in her as a person.

The significance of these “sugar mama” tourists is palpable when the women leave the safe confines of the resort, inundated by men professing their love in both German and English, showcasing a rather transactional approach to relationships.

Amidst this backdrop, Teresa forms a fleeting connection with a man named Munga. Their relationship quickly turns physical, but it soon takes a manipulative turn as he and a woman he introduces as his sister pressure Teresa into giving them several thousand shillings for supposed family emergencies. Through carefully crafted stories about his abandoned child, Munga and his supposed sister manage to infiltrate Teresa’s wallet, emptying it bit by bit. While he appears to charm her, at the same time, she objectifies him by taking nude photographs of him while he sleeps. Eventually, she discovers that the woman is not his sister but his wife, leading to a tense confrontation that involves Teresa pulling his hair and slapping him.

Undeterred, she tries to forge another connection with a different man on the beach, but this brief dalliance ends when he, too, requests money from her.

Throughout her trip, Teresa struggles to reach her daughter back in Austria, leaving messages hoping for a call in celebration of her birthday. Despite her efforts, the lines of communication remain severed. In a misguided attempt to lift her spirits, her friends arrange for a male stripper to perform at her birthday party. However, they find their efforts in arousing him to be in vain, prompting a mix of disappointment and awkwardness.

In a quest for intimacy, Teresa invites the resort bartender into her room, directing him to kiss her in various places. However, when she asks him to kiss her genital area, he declines, leading to an explosive reaction where she orders him out and succumbs to tears in solitude on her bed. This sequence paints a heartbreaking portrait of her loneliness and desperate search for connection amidst the backdrop of a beautiful but transactional paradise.