Paradise Lost, on the surface is a story about whales being held in captivity–yearning for the freedom that will never come. However, as the footage of those whales continues, the video begins to glitch, expressing something entirely different to viewers, and Paradise Lost becomes an experimental look at the human psyche and depression.
Paradise Lost is a film of opposites. Viewers see majestic whales and fish making their way through the beautifully clear waters…of a fish tank. The visuals are soothing, relaxing, and they transport viewers to a place of nirvana, but just for a second at a time. The understanding that these aren’t animals free to live out their lives among the other natural elements of the world collides with the beauty, and viewers must quickly come to terms with the harsh realities that these animals, in some ways, are prisoners. Horror and beauty battle it out throughout Paradise Lost (a fitting title), and viewers run the gamut of emotion as a result.
Furthermore, beyond the visuals, what stands out the most is the audio. Like the visuals, the tranquil sounds allow viewers to feel safe and comfortable–but those sounds are met with something like nails on a chalkboard. Remember when a VHS would be messed up, and you’d see some really strange and oddly colored visuals, imagine those things as sound, penetrating your eardrums, antagonizing you–that can be heard throughout the entirety of Paradise Lost. It sounds like a series of audio clips and familiar noises (ones you don’t often think about but instantly remember). The sound of dial-up internet or the television test screen–Paradise Lost seems to combine these horrific sounds to express the chaos of life.
Like previously mentioned, Paradise Lost expresses the horrors of whales being held in captivity–but beneath the surface (pun intended) it is a testament to mental health. The audio and video are fractured, never able to remain even-keeled, always faltering and frustrating viewers. This is a beautiful, but saddening, truth about individuals who struggle with mental health. There are these moments of clarity, understanding, even happiness–but those moments are always met with something equally terrible and antagonizing. Paradise Lost, as well as anything I’ve seen before, is able to express these realities in a way that people on the outside looking in will be able to understand–even appreciate.
As mental health becomes a bigger and bigger topic of discussion, the world scrambles to find ways to express its realities in ways that are accessible to everyone–Kouroumalis was ahead of his time in this regard. In 2006, mental health wasn’t as widely talked about as it is now–but Kouroumalis found ways through his audio and his visuals to express these ideas brilliantly. Paradise Lost is both beautiful and horrifying, calming and depressing, and cohesive and fractured–it reaches out and touches on both the simplicities and the intricacies of mental health, and I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen anything so perfectly in tune with the truth of mental health before. Paradise Lost is, without a doubt, one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time–but it understandably has (and will continue to) fly under the radar. While it may not appeal to everyone, Paradise Lost is for everyone.
Directed by Apostoly Peter Kourourmalis.
Starring Apostoly Peter Kouroumalis.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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