Im Umkreis des Paradieses

Around Paradise

Panorama Dokumente 2026

In one of the poorest regions of Paraguay lies Caazapá, the “city of magic and legends”. Here, two young Paraguayan students are searching for happiness, gold and a magic bird. Behind the fences of a gated community, European dropouts are seeking freedom, healing and salvation from Armageddon – for themselves and their savings. Separating them are 12 kilometres of red-earth road which transforms into a quagmire every rainy season. Around them hovers the humid heat and choruses of cicadas. Step by step, the film explores the new community of settlers and the local population; the camera drifts through construction sites, schools, treatment rooms and shooting ranges, gazes up at the sky and into the internet. While the newcomers experience turf wars and loss, the locals follow their own myths which hark back to the country’s missionary and colonial history. They all have a version of paradise.

Trailer/Film Excerpt

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by Yulia Lokshina (Director, Screenplay) Germany 2026 English, German, Spanish, Guarani 121' Colour World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Director	Yulia Lokshina
Screenplay	Yulia Lokshina
Cinematography	Zeno Legner
Editing	Urte Alfs
Sound Design	Alejandro Weyler
Animation	Franziska Unger
Producers	Isabelle Bertolone, David Armati Lechner, Trini Götze
Co-Producer	Jakob Zimmermann

Produced by

Trimafilm

München, Germany

Co-produced by

ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel

Mainz, Germany

World Sales

Filmotor

Prag, Czechia

Photos

Yulia Lokshina

Born in 1986, the filmmaker studied documentary film directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich. Her graduation film, Regeln am Band, bei hoher Geschwindigkeit, received multiple awards including the Max Ophüls Prize and the 2020 German Film Critics’ Award for Best Documentary. Her feature-length documentary Active Vocabulary premiered at DOK Leipzig in 2025 and won the Golden Dove for Best German Feature-Length Film.

Filmography (selection)

2016 Tage der Jugend (Days of Youth); short film 2017 After War; short film 2019 Subjective Hill; short film, co-directed by Angela Stiegler 2020 Regeln am Band, bei hoher Geschwindigkeit (Rules of the Assembly Line, at High Speed) 2025 Active Vocabulary 2026 Im Umkreis des Paradieses (Around Paradise); documentary, Berlinale 2026

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2026