POSSIBILITY OF PARADISE

Synopsis

Schoolkids living on the top of the paradise island wait for the rain to stop. A former advertising executive is closing a land deal for her new villa. An entrepreneur battles nature while building a resort in the jungle. A veterinarian works cleaning snakes from the gardens of the foreigners. An influencer, disillusioned with love, recovers from losing everything overnight. A father and son prepare to leave for good, not knowing where. A dancer adopts a new identity, distancing herself from everything she’s ever known. Divers venture into uncharted waters, risking their lives for the challenge of conquest.

The tensions between life's possibilities revolve around the question of what life one should be living, with every decision leading to a different version of oneself. And while the earthly paradise might be nothing more than an ideal of imagination, humanity's relentless pursuit for happiness persists.

Mladen Kovacevic, documentary, Serbia, film distribution, feature

Screener request

Venice International Film Festival 2024, Giornate Degli Autori – WORLD PREMIERE

Author's Film Festival 2024, International Competition – NATIONAL PREMIERE

DokuFest 2025 - BalkanDox

Through the simplicity of realism, Possibility of Paradise attempts to evade forced meanings, allowing the direct experience of the character's lives to prevail, each narrative fragment a new possibility. I drew subtle inspiration from the verse "And now the little vessel of my mind, sets sail across the better waves, leaving a sea of cruelty behind" from Dante's Purgatory, and the film's setting is deliberately reminiscent of the Dante's hilly island with the Garden of Eden on its summit. However, adorned with palm trees and occupied by foreigners, the paradise setting resonates colonial imagery; the old quest for God, gold, and glory has now become a quest for happiness. This is where film's protagonists have come to seek a good life, outside of familiar societies and ideologies, far removed from all they have ever known.

Director's statement

Mladen Kovačević is a film director and writer based in Belgrade, Serbia. His films Unplugged (2013), Wall of Death and All That (2016), 4 Years in 10 Minutes (2018), Merry Christmas, Yiwu (2020), and Another Spring (2022), Possibility of Paradise (2024) have been selected at festivals such as Venice Film Festival, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Visions du Réel, IDFA, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, FIDMarseille, winning numerous awards, and screening at prestigious venues like the Barbican and the Pompidou. His latest film Possibility of Paradise (2024) premiered at Venice, at Giornate Degli Autori. He is currently shooting the docufict Koryo and developing the fiction feature Behind the Curtains, Behind the Trees.