PARADISE IS BURNING is an emotional drama that navigates the complexities of 
society and family in the working-class Swedish suburbia. Three sisters – sixteen-year-old Laura 
(Bianca Delbravo), twelve-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad), and seven-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg) – are left to their own devices by their absent mother. As summer approaches, the trio revels in the excitement of freedom, letting their days unfold without the constraints of adult supervision. However, when Laura receives a call that threatens to place them in foster care, she frantically 
searches for a substitute mother to avoid this fate. Keeping the truth hidden from her younger sisters, Laura navigates the blurred lines between the thrill of independence and the harsh realities of growing up, as 
the sisters’ relationships with each other are put to the test. Director and co-writer Mika Gustafson joins us for a conversation on her inspiration for making Paradise is Burning, how she went about assembling an amazing array of talented young actors and how the amazing array of talented young actors and how the international success of the film has impacted her career opportunities as a filmmaker.
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For more go to: roomeightfilms.com/paradise-is-burning
About the director – Mika Gustafson was born in 1988 in Linköping, Sweden. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in film directing from Valand Academy, Gothenburg. In her short films, she proposes hazy tales of youth, in which reality and fiction are confused by way of partially scripted stories, montage, and handheld camerawork, as the director throws herself with absolute immediacy into the medium. Working with both fiction and documentary, her first feature film was the documentary Silvana (2017), about the Swedish rapper Silvana Imam, which earned her the Swedish Golden Guldbagge for Best Documentary. Her first feature-length fiction film, Paradise is Burning (2023), was awarded the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival.
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“The movie is at its best when focussing on the bonding and banter between the siblings, who live an almost feral life on their scruffy housing estate. Delbrava is excellent in her role, being both pugnaciously resourceful and painfully vulnerable.” – David Parkinson, Radio Times
“There’s a rawness here, and an authenticity in filmmaking and performances, that bolsters the occasional narrative weaknesses to create a film of quiet power.” – Nikki BaughanScreen International
“A luminous social drama that aspires to become a summer cult classic film.” – Andrea G. Bermejo. Cinemanía
“Not many films can make you simultaneously think of Sean Baker, Andrei Tarkovsky, and David Lynch. Yet those are the filmmakers that come to mind when watching Paradise is Burning, the spectacular debut feature from Mika Gustafson.” – Joshua Stevens, Loud and Clear Reviews
“Full of personality and heart without sacrificing its inherent seriousness, Gustafson’s film is a sure portrait of adolescence that packs a punch.” – Emily Maskell, A Good Movie To Watch