Attack On Paradise

It isn’t easy to get into Paradise, but then, nothing about Suleyman’s life has been easy. Played by screenwriter Saïd Boumazoughe, he’s grown up as a carer for his diabetic single mother Fatma (Fatima Khanfour) in a world of poverty and decay. We first encounter him as he’s targeted for a brutal stop-and-search procedure which leads to panic when he thinks his mother’s medication is going to be confiscated; then to tragedy. We reunite with him seven years later when he’s served time in prison and is finally going home – except that the guards here are every bit as aggressive and nobody knows who he is. Until he gives them his name. ‘Suleyman Solo’, they call him, and they step back in awe.

It’s an awe he doesn’t want. Time inside has allowed him to shake free of the grip of this place. He is calm, disciplined, and determined not to get caught up in crime, but that’s quite a challenge now that sleazy gangland kingpin Hamza Hadda, aka the Prince (Achmed Akkabi) is running the building, having taken over the upper floors where Fatma used to live. She’s happier in her new place, she insists, telling her prodigal son that the Prince takes good care of her. Suleyman can’t persuade her otherwise. But when he goes down to the basement to get his stored belongings and stumbles into the early stages of a police raid, the stakes are raised again.

The police plan to work their way up the building, taking no prisoners. Suleyman just wants to get back to his mother. Along the way he manages to piss off the Prince, and then everybody is after him. Everyone, that is, except for police officer Yasmine (Clara Cleymans), who just wants to get out of there alive so she can look after her little girl. After Suleyman comes to her rescue, the two become cautious allies, navigating the building floor by floor, facing one after another of the Prince’s assassins.

There will be inevitable comparisons with The Raid. This film – another treat from Fantasia 2026 - feels rather like the creation of somebody who saw that film and re-envisioned it, wanting to use the framework to showcase different ideas. I doesn’t have quite the same relentlessness, nor the sheer ferocity of Iko Uwais’ fighting style, but Boumazoughe is nevertheless impressive to watch, and Cleymans also acquits herself well. Rather than non-stop action, Attack On Paradise delivers its violence in measured vignettes, spacing them out around character-focused scenes which aim to make it feel more personal. It’s very clear here that our warriors are not invincible and that their experiences are taking a psychological as well as a physical toll.

Director Bob Colaers shows us the strain in the way that Boumazoughe fights, which is its own kind of impressive. It’s difficult to perform martial arts like this safely whilst also displaying fatigue and making apparent mistakes. A good deal of the fighting is approached as a form of storytelling. There’s also a great moment towards the end when a knife is pulled and the balance of a fight shifts accordingly, with a logic which may escape the attention of those who have had no training themselves, but makes perfect sense.

Colaers tries to give each major fight its own character. This is not always successful – an attempt to shoot one as seen through a night vision scope is not wholly successful – but it has its moments, such as a fight on a waterbed. Each of the assassins/sub-bosses has a different fighting style, and it’s also clear throughout how important calculation and tactics are to success, going beyond the physical to include elements which viewers can engage with. Meanwhile, Suleyman’s mother is treated with much more respect that non-combatants in many such films, in that it’s made clear that she has her own kind of fierceness and power. Furthermore, even at her weakest, she notices things which her son is at risk of overlooking. This helps the film to strike a good emotional balance despite its uneven pacing. Alongside Boumazoughe’s impressive moves, you will remember its sweetness.

Reviewed on: 20 Jul 2026