Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl, 2012) is a film that discusses the intricate balance between desire and

oppression by analyzing the relationship between patriarchal structures and white supremacy. The
film focuses strongly on the desire of the Other by a white counterpart. The plot completely
revolves around the desire of the white women to have contact with the Other, to expand and
explore their attraction of the exotic patriarchal acknowledgment. The men are just object of sexual
desire and are reduced to stereotypes in the minds of white supremacy. They are tools, never
humans. Even within their own country they are out of place, in the playing field of the white gaze.
As Robert G. Lee states, the Other can never be at home but is always out of place, therefore
disturbing and dangerous.1 The black men are dominated within their home and are out of place,
always ready to service their white colonizers.
The issue of being deemed inferior applies to the family as well. As Lee states the family is
the primary metaphor of the nation2, which is shown in two ways within the film. Teresa's
(Margarete Tiesel) daughter, who she keeps trying to call on the phone, is her only contact with her
home country, except for the women she meets on her vacation. This relationship is hugely
important to Teresa but when the daughter refuses to pick up her phone or return her calls, she
spirals further into her loneliness and questionable actions. The notion of family for the black
people within the film is however judged as unimportant. This is shown when Teresa reveals that
her boytoy Munga (Peter Kazungu) is really married and doesn't share the feelings which she at
least believes she has. The fact that he has been offering companionship and sex for the safety and
well-being of his family is something that Teresa does not even consider because the value of his
family is trumped by her white feelings of betrayal and jealousy. This ties in with the idea of the
men, or even the black people in general, being primitive. Their needs are seen as less important
because they are in fact primal needs. Their need for money, their need for sex, their need for white
acknowledgment and so on, is all a part of being inferior and thus unworthy of complex needs or
even sympathy. According to Bell Hooks the need to reduce the Other to a primitive status is due
to a crisis within its own identity, something that is very true in Paradise: Love.3 The Other
becomes a spice, a way to explore oneself and one's sexuality. Hooks continues to delve into the
issue and states that sexual contact with the Other is often seen as more exciting whilst balancing on
the edge of becoming dangerous, which is, of course, also one of the appeals. Furthermore this
meeting acts as a way for the white part to transcend their self and become someone else. This is
where the focus of the film is at the same time brilliant as it is provoking, since it is centered around
the white women's feelings. Never are the black males feeling's addressed or even considered. This
1
2
3

Lee, Robert G. Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999: 3
Ibid. 7
hooks, bell: Eating the Other from Black looks: race and representation. South End Press, 1992: 22-26

Mikael Haln Romn 8808080579

mimics the white women's position within the film but also within society. Their emotions get to
take center stage even though they revolve around trivial or personal matters such as identity
crisis, feeling sexy, feeling wanted. They are trying to use the black men's bodies to achieve a
transcendence where they can come out feeling new and fresh. That is the purpose of the whole trip.
The more serious issues of poverty and sexual slavery are never addressed because they are not
within the white reality, they are not part of the catharsis. Edward Said claims that the Orient is in
many ways a construction, a Western invention of sorts, that holds images of romance, exoticism
and so on.4 While Paradise: Love is not set in the Orient the construction of the country is similar. It
is thought to be a safe haven for white women to feel sexy, to relive their glory days so to speak, in
terms of alcohol, parties, love and sex.
Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate, is
the only standpoint that makes possible and encounter between races that is not based on denial and
fantasy. For it is the ever present reality of racist domination, of white supremacy, that renders
problematic the desire of white people to have contact with the Other5

This quote clearly shows what the film itself also points to. The lack of recognition of one's own
racism, of a world dominated by white supremacy is an issue when one is white and has sexual
desire, or just desire in general, towards the Other. The women in the film never regard themselves
as racist, because they truly believe they are not. They see themselves as saviors, as deserving of the
love of the black men without actually giving anything in return. Teresa and her friends consider
themselves as the victims when being approached/harassed by vendors on the beach or willing
men on the streets. Even in the scene where Teresa is sexually molested there is a tone of white
supremacy. While his behavior is indeed patriarchal and he acts out of a position of privilege in
regards to the gender structure, he is also acting from a position of non-privileged within the
structure of race. The scene is replicating what we often see in a patriarchal society: the male trying
to force himself sexually upon the female, rejecting her unwillingness and physical resistance.
However it is not that simple since he is (also) acting out of financial need and is indeed bought
(although not yet paid for) by the white woman. His behavior is both an expression of patriarchy but
also one of being oppressed by the colonizer. The film has yet again blurred the lines of oppression,
forcing us as viewers to analyze it in an intersectional way. In many ways the film acts a women's
liberation film, taking their sexuality in their own hand, using the tools that have been used against
women and turning them against men. However this is done due to a culture of white dominance
making their position a lot more problematic.
4
5

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979: 1

hooks, bell: Eating the Other from Black looks: race and representation. South End Press, 1992: 28

Mikael Haln Romn 8808080579