Lost in the rampant and remote landscapes of Paraguay, a strange community of Europeans attempts to build an enclosed “paradise,” far from everything they consider as decay in the modern world. Conspiracy theorists, right-wing extremists, and all sorts of eccentric people arrive in the settlement, whose founder and leader is a shrewd Austrian man. Crafting the portrait of the community’s founder and tracing the stories of both the settlers and the Paraguayans around the gated territory that presents itself as a utopia, “Around Paradise” is an insightful film that – upon indirectly and allusively casting light on the so-called paradise through dark humor and a metaphysical lens – addresses a number of pressing issues of our time: from the rise of the far right and its historical roots to modern colonialism through the economy and digital technology.
Yulia Lokshina - 1986 DE
Yulia Lokshina - 1986 DE
Born in 1986. Yulia Lokshina began studying film at the University of Television and Film Munich. As part of her work at the University of Bonn, she creates parallel audiovisual projects at the interface of film and science as well as lectures and publications on the documentary. Days of Youth (2016) premiered at the Duisburg Film Week and was awarded the Starter Film Prize of the City of Munich. Her diploma film Rules of the Assembly Line, at High Speed (2020) was awarded Best Documentary Film at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival 2020 and the megaherz Student Award at the Dokfilmfest München 2020. Her previous documentary Active Vocabulary (2025) won the award for the best German doc at DOK Leipzig.