Beach Boy

Synopsis

Like the majority of young Kenyans, Juma dreams of a better life abroad. His girlfriend has left to work in Qatar, allowing the young man to fully thrust himself into his work as a “companion” to elderly European women who spend their vacations at local resort hotels. Danish filmmaker Emil Langballe records in detail what appears to be a budding love affair between Juma and 50-year-old British woman named Lynn. The documentary turns out to be a real-life version of Ulrich Seidl’s feature Paradise: Love, investigating local female sex tourism based on a false sense of romance.

Director Biography

Emil Langballe (b. 1982 in Odense) is an independent Danish filmmaker based in Copenhagen, and a recent graduate of the British National Film and Television School. ‘Beach Boy’ which is his graduation film from the NFTS, recently won the prize for Best Short Documentary at the 48th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.