Una nuova vita

Katarina Čas conquers her foreign-language role with incredible ease and fascinating self-possession. Even though her creative decisions in acting seem to be guided by the principle “Less is more”, her warmth disarms not only the protagonist, but also the audience. Despite her subtle expression, Katarina Čas creates a full-blooded female character.

The film is set in a mountain village that, with its deserted pub, winding empty streets and crossroads that lead nowhere, embodies the hopelessness and absurdity of the situation the protagonist has found himself in. The production designer deliberately highlights the protagonist’s sense of confinement through emptied-out, impersonal hotel rooms where time seems to have stopped and the hope which the protagonist tries to have for his future is both genuine and as fabricated as the neon-lit sites of his life decisions.

One realises that costume design is one of the essential elements of expression in Paradise – A Second Life as soon as Calogero, safely hidden behind a mask, can breathe somewhat more freely for the first time, after arriving in a place where he is supposed to start a new chapter in his life. This, however, is a highly contradictory chapter: both the protagonist and his antagonist can only survive if they remain hidden – in plain view. The costumes that the designer puts on the two characters layer after layer work not only as protection against the cold, but as camouflage for the adversaries in this tragicomical battle for survival.