In Berlinale Film ‘Paradises of Diane,’ a Woman Abandons Her Baby but Finds Herself: ‘We Don’t Want to Judge Her’
variety.comLeo Barraclough International Features Editor “Paradises of Diane,” which premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival, came out of an exploration of the “dark side of maternity” and the role of the mother in society, director Carmen Jaquier tells Variety.
The film, which was directed with Jan Gassmann, starts with Diane abandoning her new-born baby at a maternity clinic in Zurich, and heading to the seedy Spanish seaside resort Benidorm, without telling anyone.
Here she befriends an elderly woman, Rose, and the two of them form a tentative bond. Jaquier says the idea for the film came from a conversation with a friend, who confessed that she had become very depressed after the birth of her daughter.
The woman hadn’t spoken about this to her friends or family. After Jaquier had written the first draft of the script, Gassmann joined the project and the two of them started to talk to women about their experiences of giving birth and motherhood.
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