Farewell Paradise

The idyllic life in the Bahamas of a family with four young daughters is cruelly disrupted when mother decides to return to Switzerland. Director Sonja Wyss is the youngest of the daughters, who all returned to Europe with their mother. She reconstructs the events surrounding their departure and everything that subsequently happened through conversations with her parents and sisters and her own memories. A tale unfolds of the struggles of a single mother, a distant father, a judgmental society and the difficulties the girls faced growing up. Apart from beautiful archival photos and films and quiet footage of locales, this documentary consists of talking heads. With at times crushing candour, the parents talk about their decisions, with all the radical consequences for their children. The disarming, moving and affecting testimony, which seems cathartic, adds up to a story of unrequited love, infidelity, resilience, sorrow and sisterly love. Without sentimentality, with honest emotion, visible pain and the right dose of humour. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)