Sex Tourism in Kenya

Austrian tourist Teresa (Margarete Tiesel) faces a group of male hustlers at a Kenya beach resort in PARADISE: LOVE (2012), directed by Ulrich Seidl.

Sex tourism has been around for centuries but it really started to flourish in the 1800s. I used to think it was only men with money that traveled to poorer regions in Asia, South America and the Philippines to have sex with underage girls but some women are also avid sex tourists. Heading South (2005), directed by Laurent Cantet, was one of the first movies to dramatize this activity with Charlotte Rampling playing a well-to-do Bostonian who enjoys cavorting with the young black gigolos of Haiti during her annual vacation. Although it was unusually frank and edgy at the time, it almost looks subtle next to Ulrich Seidl’s Paradies: Liebe (English title: Paradise: Love, 2012), the first in the Austrian filmmaker’s “Paradise” trilogy. In this film, Teresa (Margarete Tiesel), n overweight fifty-year-old woman with a sullen teenage daughter, takes a solo holiday at a beach resort in Kenya (It was filmed at the Flamingo Beach Hotel in Mombasa). Besides enjoying the sun and surf, her prime objective is to join her Austrian friend Inge (Inge Maux) in a series of sexual escapades with young African men. Of course, it costs money – sex tourism in Kenya is a booming business – but Teresa is looking for something more than just casual sex.

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Udo Kier’s First Feature Film

Udo Kier plays a rising gang leader in the bleak 1968 crime expose SHAMELESS (German title: Schamlos).

Long before Udo Kier became the go-to eclectic supporting actor who stole his scenes in films such as Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991), the sci-fi fantasy Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Wim Wenders’ The End of Violence (1997) and numerous films by Lars von Trier, the German actor was already firmly established as a cult film icon from the 1970s. In addition to playing the lead in two Andy Warhol productions, Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974), he starred in the sadistic period piece The Mark of the Devil (1970), Just Jaeckin’s S&M erotica The Story of O (1975), Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) and R.W. Fassbinder’s The Third Generation (1979). Kier, who was born in 1944, is still going strong today at age 78 with more than 250 film and TV series in his filmography and a rare leading role in Swan Song (2021), in which he plays a retired hairdresser who agrees to perform one last makeover on a deceased client. But if you want to see him at the beginning of his career, look no further than his debut feature film Shameless (German title, Schamlos, 1968), in which he plays a ruthless young gangster who tries to muscle in on his rival’s business operations in Vienna, Austria.

Udo Kier has a rare starring role in the bittersweet comedy-drama SWAN SONG (2021).
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