The Last Paradise on Earth

This little village in Faroe Islands is dying. We look at the situation from Kari's (sorry, I don't have the accent on my keyboard, so Kari it is) point of view. He is a young factory worker who sees the factory being shut down in this little community with really no prospects.

There are similar situations all over the world. Small communities relient on single employer, so when that employer goes away, the whole community is at risk.

So, there is a universal appeal to the story. However, the problem is that Kari is not that interesting. He is mostly just following along, never really being active in pretty much any way. He just seems to be hoping that somehow things get better and that makes for a pretty bad protagonist, if you can even call him that. Not really his fault. The writing is what it is and doesn't really give him much to work with.

Basically everyone around him is more interesting, but this is what we have: a silent guy just going with the flow. When he does attempt something, it doesn't lead to anything.

Still, we have those other characters, who make this worthwhile. We mostly only see Silva, Kari's sister, through his eyes, but she seems to have much more going on, as does Kari's friends.

Finally, I have to say that I do have a soft spot for movies from improbable places and voices. You only get to see so many movies from countries with a population of about 50k.

I watched this one in Tórshavn, the Faroe capital, and it very much added to my personal impressions of this small but magical place. However, the film isn't set in the capital, it looks like we contemplate the everyday life of a Suðuroy village - it's the most remote Faroe island, probably the wildest and somewhat truculent. Kári, as well as the other characters, experiences a series of hardships both internal (loss of mother and an absent negligent father) and external (cut down in the local fish factory) and struggles to find ways to cope. The whole film is a patchwork of colors, places, characters, emotions, words and feelings and it wonderfully leaves a ray of hope in the end. As well as these little Faroe houses, the film feels very cozy and warm, I definitely recommend it.

I attended the world premiere of The Last Paradise on Earth on 29th January 2025. I really liked the film and it was obvious that the audience did too.

The tempo is slow so you really get to know the characters and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Living in a small place is essential in the film. There are only just over 50 000 inhabitants in the whole Faroe Islands. The director of the film, the producer and the main actor were present at the Q&A after the film. It was interesting getting to know more about living on the Faroe Islands and more specifically making a film there. We were told that the shooting was done on an island two hours away by boat from the capital Torshavn.

Another interesting thing they told us about was what they thought was the most difficult scene to shoot, which was a question from the audience.

I really recommend this film to everybody that thinks this is a kind of film that they like. I couldn't find a trailer, which is a pity, but I guess there will be one before it's released other than at festivals. It will be released in Denmark in the spring and I really hope they will find distributors in the other Nordic countries and in many other countries too.

Thank you for a really good film!