Documentary and fiction: interchangeable labels, says Ulrich Seidl

Upon finishing his studies at the Wiener Film Akademie, the most prestigious Austrian film school, Ulrich Seidl started making documentary films. Among his films, Models describes life for a model who will do anything to succeed, and The Last Real Men shows lonely singles who turn to catalogues of Asian models in their search for wives. Animal Love explains human beings’ dependence on their animal companions, and all are realism in its purest form, like the majority of his work. As the Austrian says “A film does not need to be optimistic, but it must be authentic”. That pragmatism rings true in his documentary as well as in his fictional work.

Paradise: Love is the first part of a trilogy in which three women travel to Kenya. One of them is looking for love, one is on a sex tourism holiday while the third loses her virginity in a spa resort. A fiction with the stamp of realism that portrays the omnipresent sex tourism in Africa. It is the Austrian’s way of remaining authentic: “I always maintained that there is no boundary between documentaries and fiction, but in fact there is one. However, I have always tried to rub out this line by making documentaries with elements of fiction and vice-versa.”

Paradise: Love will be screened the Grand Théatre Lumière on Friday 18 May at 4 pm.