For children who face parental abandonment, a visit from Social Services is a mixed blessing. Certainly, children should be cared for, not forced to fend for themselves, and, in that regard, the system can be a blessing when it works well. On the other hand, as much as a great new family can be a vast improvement, new homes, and families can be as bad or worse than a child’s prior condition. Another danger is unique to siblings: there’s always the possibility of separation. It’s this fear that fuels Paradise Is Burning, Mika Gustafson’s tale of sisterhood in these conditions. The film deftly captures the dreamy exuberance of a life free of parental control, the difficulties children face when forced to care for siblings, and the feeling of uncertainty and doom when the dreaded Social Services visit arrives, navigating this territory with sensitivity and nuance.

We’re enamored (and a bit afraid) of the possibilities for kids to run amok, left to their own devices with no “wiser” adults in sight. J.M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan posits a land where children effectively rule a fantasy land and never grow up (famously adapted into the classic Disney cartoon), while the famed 1954 novel Lord of the Flies sees a group of young British boys descend into chaos when left to their own devices (a premise updated for a team of American girls in Yellowjackets). In cinema history, when kids are left alone for long periods of time, they kill all the adults and form a cult (Children of the Corn), investigate crimes (Rian Johnson’s Brick), explore their sexuality in sometimes unhealthy ways (the infamous Kids), or (if you’re lucky) fight off cosmic terrors in Stephen King outings like IT. In Paradise Is Burning, the creature lurking in the shadows isn’t an interdimensional spider-clown or an angry corn god. It’s a visit from an agency that could rip your family apart.

What is ‘Paradise Is Burning’ About?
Three young Swedish sisters, Laura (Bianca Delbravo), Mira (Dilvin Asaad), and the youngest, Steffi (Safira Mossberg) have no choice but to take care of each other following their mother’s long periods of regular abandonment. They spend their days caring for each other, getting ready for school, shoplifting to fill the cupboards, commemorating important life events with their own rituals, and running from the people they stole from. The biggest burden is on the eldest, 16-year-old Laura, who’s become the sisters’ de facto caretaker despite her own coming-of-age pressures. Their life is thrown into chaos when Social Services arranges a meet with the girls, a fact that could separate them. Laura doesn’t know what to do, so she hides the fact and goes in search of someone to pretend to be their mother. In the process, the teen builds a line-blurring relationship with a local woman, Hannah (Ida Engvoll), who she befriends. Time edges ever closer to the visit, and Laura has to figure out how to keep her family together.

No Man Is An Island, But This Sisterhood Is

All three young actresses who play the girls are lively and give complex performances in their roles, having believable chemistry as sisters. Safira Mossberg is routinely charming as the young Steffi, while Dilvin Asaad’s Mira is energetic and full of life. The latter really shines in her pivotal coming-of-age milestones. She’s the first to fight, to yell at the sky in joy, to dance with abandon, giving moments of lightness that balance Laura’s seriousness as the eldest. At the same time, it’s Bianca Delbravo’s Laura who is the film’s heart. She lands the film’s good-natured, easygoing moments (her more humorous interactions with Engvoll’s Hannah are beautifully carefree and connected) just as well as the moments of tension. Delbravo lands the head-on-a-swivel calculative mind that it sometimes takes to survive homelessness or impoverishment, creating a strong tension where it’s just Laura and a camera. Ida Engvoll is also captivating as Hannah, joyfully indulging in the normless freedom of Laura’s existence once the two get to truly know each other.

The camera’s constant proximity to the girls is a smart choice: dialogue is plentiful here but exposition is sparse, Gustafson preferring to demonstrate the girls’ day-to-day lives through subtleties and proximity. The choice in perspective, along with smart camera work from Sine Vadstrup Brooker, heighten the joy of the lighter moments as well as our experience of the film’s tension. There isn’t a lot of visible introspection from the girls, which in a way echoes both their youth and the immediate practicality of their daily efforts to survive. There are moments where a little greater insight into characters’ subjectivities might be welcome, or a bit more history and context put into the varied people they encounter along the way, but overall the choice provokes a strong and nuanced look at their lives.

Altogether, Paradise Is Burning is a stunning look at three sisters who have formed an effective island in the stream of their city, capably told through a close look at strong performances. It’s lean and sleek storytelling, carried by nuanced performances. The young performers are fantastic, with Delbravo and Asaad carrying a variety of the emotions that come with growing up too fast quite capably. At the same time, the elegance and simplicity of the narrative does leave some useful story stones unturned. There are moments where greater context or detail in the girls’ history, relationships with their community, and with their mother would help ground the overall weight of their journey. Our encounters with the aunt, the social worker, the neighbors, are fleeting, and it’s hard at times to gauge the weight of the present relative to the girls’ past or current context. Context aside, Paradise Is Burning is a stunner of an entry thanks to its focus on a talented set of young performers.

‘Paradise Is Burning’ Is a Layered Exploration of the Last Moments of an Unconventional Childhood
Image Courtesy of Conic

Paradise Is Burning is about a variety of themes: surviving on society’s edges, navigating the threats of an insecure bureaucratic system, the resourcefulness that survival requires, and the freedom of an unencumbered childhood. Most importantly, it’s a showcase of the love and joys of sisterhood, following three girls who only have each other. There are a few small missed opportunities here that would give a greater sense of the girls’ world and lived experiences, but what’s there tends to land. The film captures the reality of an abundantly free, but unguarded childhood well, and the resultant dreamlike quality of certain scenes is thoroughly engaging. It’s absolutely a journey to watch.

Paradise Is Burning is now playing in select theaters in the U.S. before expanding. Click below for showtimes near you.

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