Paradise is Burning

Winner of a Best Director award at Venice, this is Mika Gustafson's first movie and is a celebration of youth: three sisters, aged 16, 12 and 7, are surviving alone after their fun-loving mother finally abandons them all together. Laura, the eldest, takes on the responsibilities to keep them alive, though their lifestyle is built on fun, stealing food from supermarkets, and breaking into rich properties to enjoy what they haven't got. The film contrasts this anarchic life with their innermost fears that it can't last and their day-to-day problems of survival. This all comes to a head when the social services book a home visit...