Germany 2020Language:GermanDirector:Immanuel EsserWriter:Immanuel Esser, Matthias Sahli, Angelo WemmjeCinematographer:Philipp KünzliEditor:Romola DaviesMusic:Bertha Elena Artero PonceSound:Holger BuffWith:Franziska Machens, Holger Daemgen, Johannes Kühn, Isabelle HoepfnerProducer:Immanuel Esser, Philipp Künzli, Renate MihatschProduction Company:Kunsthochschule für Medien KölnDistributor:Immanuel Esser80 min, Colour

To be honest, it is not too bad to work for the Grim reaper: a truck, three colleagues, and a steady work rhythm. Driving across the country day after day, from one point of death to the next, to present people with their fate: a rather bureaucratic, almost boring undertaking. But suddenly the employees of the recycling company STYX are confronted with their own looming demise. Faced with death, they begin to question the rules of their world. How to act when death is near? How to get a grasp on one’s own transience? Almost playfully and with a pronounced sense of the absurd, PARADISE addresses these big questions.

Director's Biography:Before turning to filmmaking, Immanuel Esser studied philosophy in Berlin concentrating on gedankenexperiments (thought experiments), political philosophy, and aesthetics. He graduated with a thesis about the enlightenment and knowledge potential of stylized worlds. After several short films and wanderings into the area of video clip and socio-critical fake-commercials, PARADISE is Esser’s first feature film, realized at the Art Academy for Media in Cologne where he studies film direction.

Regional reference:

PARADISE was shot in Salzgitter, Vechelde and Schöningen. Whilst shooting, the film crew lodged at the youth club of the DLRG (German Live Saving Association) in Salzgitter.