A film by immAnuel esser

In a world, where death has become a prIvate servIce company,

three workers rebel agaInst theIr own mortalIty.

paradIseGermany 2020 · fiction · color · 80´ · 1,85:1

withfranziska machens, Holger Daemgen, Johannes Kühn

directorimmanuel esser

writers immanuel esser, matthias sahli, Angelo Wemmje

director of photography Philipp Künzli

production designerrenate mihatsch

editorromola Davies

castingViktor brim

sound engineerephraim Hahn

sound designerHolger buff

musicbertha elena Artero Ponce

costume designerDoris bartelt

line producerJakob Deutsch

productionKunsthochschule für medien Köln

Fundingnordmedia – film- und mediengesellschaft niedersachsen/bremen mbH

“I stIll wanted to do thIngs.”“what kInd oF thIngs?”

“thIngs.”

for the three workers of the company “styx“ it is everyday business: living in the company van and driving overland to get from one place and time of death to the next – terminating people, packaging them and sending them off. They live a monotone life doing their daily chores for a society that developed a pain-free sys-tem for people’s passings. suddenly, the three find themselves confronted with their own termination and start to question and bend the rules of their world.

synopsIs

in 1896 Hugo simberg painted a waterc-

olour titled in THe GArDen Of DeATH.

Three Grim reapers in black robes ful-

fill the gloomy expectations of the title.

but the peculiarity of this small work

lies in the way they pursue the peaceful

and profane activity of gardening. They

are likable – but don’t loose their status

as memento mori. in this way simberg

stimulates an examination of our mortal-

ity, which i believe is worth exploring.

With PArADise we approach the

dark theme of death in this playful sense.

We think, that the absurd is an important

way of thinking and can be fruitfully used

to approach existential questions. in film-

ic terms: looking at another fictional and

stylized world and how it deals with this

inevitable end of our physical being, we

sometimes recognize unexpected paral-

lels and caricatures of our own world.

in PArADise we accompany three

protagonists on this mental and physi-

cal journey, dealing with other’s and their

own mortality. We discover structural

similarities to the efforts of our own so-

ciety to control the process of dying by

confining it to hospital beds accompanied

by the administration of drugs. And the

emptiness and artificiality of their world,

which initially stands in stark contrast to

our world, becomes the lens for a reflec-

tive view of current developments in the

world of work.

Director’s NoteImmanuel esser

Immanuel esser

immanuel esser studied philosophy in

berlin before turning to film. focusing on

thought experiments, political philoso-

phy and aesthetics, he wrote his thesis

on stylized worlds and their benefit for

insight and enlightenment. After several

short fiction films and explorations into

the world of stylized music videos and

fake advertisements for fictional socio-

critical products, PArADies is his first

feature film. it was produced at the film

school he is currently attending: the uni-

versity of media Arts Cologne.

mail@immanuelesser.com

+49 157 56371860

www.immanuelesser.com

addItIonal cast

isabelle Höpfner · Dobau | imke büchel · frau berger | Jen-

nifer ewert · lieferantin ebers | Günter Henneke-Kienitz

· Herr Kerber | linda sixt · frau frau Hermer | leander

Gerdes · Kurier lauber | Theo Pfeifer · Herr Wurtel | Arne

Krause · lieferant brehm

addItIonal crew

Axel bangert · add. Casting | Christian roos, bo friedrich,

Jelena ilic, michel Dulisch · 1st Assistant Director | florian

brückner, Christoph Hövel, lars elliger · 1st AC | martin

Paret, leo Decristofero · Gaffer | Patrick Haack, leander

Kühne · Grip-electrician | Dipti Gurung, simon luetkehaus,

Chantal bergemann, ernesto sosa · add. electrician | flo-

rian brückner · black Arm Operator | farbkult - felix Hüs-

ken · luT Colorist | Thomas lambertz · Graphic Art | Alina

Dunker, Katharina Janson, Thorben fritsche · Assistent

Production Design & Props | Axel Autschbach, bernd Voss

· Construction | Alexander schwarz · add. scouting Köln |

Antonello scarpelli, Tarik badaoui, stefan bück, Christian

Grundey · add. on set recording | ephraim Hahn · Dialog

editing | Kevin Gläßer, rené mailaender, Paul sehl · foley |

lauritz baudisch · add recording | Till schaarschmidt, stu-

dio Krauthausen · add sound Design | ephraim Hahn, Hol-

ger buff · mixing | Annett eichel, Dagmar Wolff · Tailoring

| Charlotte fleck · make up | Antonia sabljak · add. make

up | bo friedrich · location manager | florian Klapetz · Ac-

counting | Hannah- lisa Paul, marie Jo Geukes · Produc-

tion Assistent | steffen meyn, Jelena ilic, Constanze Klaue,

Hannah-lisa Paul, Johanna strunge · Catering | róbert

sági · Assistent editor | frameworks.ch, sebastian Klinger,

Philipp Künzli · VfX, retouching, Compositing | Day for

night · VfX, mattepainting | romola Davies · Color Grading

| ewald Hentze · DCP | Keegan m. uhl · Translation | Prof.

Cornelius schwehr, musikhochschule freiburg · music su-

pervision | Kseniya Degtyareva · music Production | ming

Wei Kueh · Tenor banjo | Javier Verduras · marimba 1 | Timo-

thée de la morinerie · marimba 2 | Takashi mokuhito · little

Percussion | Prof. Didi Danquart, Prof. sebastian richter,

Prof. frank Döhmann, Prof. Peter bexte, Carina neubohn ·

supervising lecturers KHm | Prof. maris Pfeiffer, Prof. me-

lissa de raaf, Tom uhlenbruck, Prof. ingo Haeb, Prof. mar-

kus busch, Prof. Dietrich leder · Consultation KHm | Chris-

tian Turner, falco sixel, lars langen · rental KHm | rüdiger

Dill, susanne ritter, Petra Clemens, ursula reber, stephan

sarasi, elke feist, Kasia Paczesniowska-renner · Project

Organization KHm | ute Dilger · festival Office | Christian

füllgraf · legal Advice | Henning Kunze · Constultant Cine-

ma funding | susanne lange · Advisor film Commission |

Christoph schirmacher, Katharina breuer · Auditing

mAil@PArADies-Der-film.De

WWW.PArADies-Der-film.De

WWW.insTAGrAm.COm/PArADiesDerfilm/

Official selection