Paradise Is Burning

Mika
Gustafson

Mika was born in Linköping, Sweden on April 25th, 1988. In 2016 she graduated from Valand Film Academy. The same year, she received the Nordic Talents prize in Copenhagen. Her graduation film Mephobia, won Iconoclastic prize at the Torino film festival and Best Actor at Premiere Plans. Her documentary Silvana was awarded at the National film awards for best documentary in 2017. She was granted her own exhibition at Centre d’Art Contemporain de Genève. She was part of the Dragon Award Jury at Gothenburg International Film Festival (2019) and was selected to Berlinale Script Station in 2020 with her fellow scriptwriter Alexander Öhrstrand. Paradise is Burning is her first fiction feature.

In a blue-collar Swedish neighborhood, Laura, 16, Mira, 12, and Steffi, 7, navigate life without their absent mother. With summer approaching and no supervision, their days are spontaneous and lively. But when social services intervene, Laura must find a stand-in mother to avoid separation and foster care. Shielding her sisters from the threat, she faces mounting pressure as the deadline looms, prompting the trio to confront the balancing act between youthful freedom and the responsibilities of maturity.