DESCRIPTION
In one of the poorest regions of Paraguay lies Caazapá, the “city of magic and legends”. Here, two young Paraguayan students are searching for happiness, gold and a magic bird. Behind the fences of a gated community, European dropouts are seeking freedom, healing and salvation from Armageddon – for themselves and their savings. Separating them are 12 kilometres of red-earth road which transforms into a swamp during the rainy season. Around them hangs the humid heat and choruses of cicadas. Step by step, the film explores the new community of settlers and the local population, drifting through construction sites, schools, treatment rooms and shooting ranges, gazing up at the sky and into the internet. While the newcomers experience turf wars and loss, the locals follow their own myths which stretch back to the country’s missionary and colonial history. They all have a vision of paradise.
News & reviews
Acquisition news | Screen : Berlin Panorama documentary ‘Around Paradise’ acquired for international sales | News | Screen
Trailer release | Cineuropa: EXCLUSIVE: Trailer and poster for Berlin Panorama title Around Paradise – Cineuropa
Interview | Business Doc Europe: Berlin Panorama: Around Paradise by Yulia Lokshina – Business Doc Europe
“The unsettling film illuminates a kind of thinking that has surged back with a vengeance in Europe and beyond since the COVID-19 pandemic” Around Paradise | MODERN TIMES REVIEW
Review |Eye for Film: Around Paradise (2026) Movie Review from Eye for Film
“Thoughtful, unsettling and often darkly ironic, Around Paradise offers a compelling reflection on the contemporary resurgence of conspiratorial thinking and ideological escapism. Rather than ridiculing its subjects, Lokshina exposes the mechanisms through which belief systems take hold and flourish.” Review: Around Paradise – Cineuropa