Cristóvão, 48 years old, is trying to make a new life for himself following a divorce; Cristina, 20, wants to fill in the gaps of a life lost in Angola. The ghosts of the past are easy to spot in the photographic and cinematic images that emerge in Paraíso Perdido, forming a kind of rehearsed catharsis for the failed imaginary of this overseas “El Dorado”. Peopled by orphaned characters (or fallen angels, in a reference to John Milton), the film addresses loss and pain, wandering between healing rituals that try — and fail — to resolve colonial traumas.