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This Danish film relates the experiences of a group of impoverished people living in shacks near a Copenhagen dump site and a military shooting range. It is there where their lifestyles reflect the effects of war and the social problems that plague them even in peaceful times. While the children attempt to seek an education, one man daydreams of a better life out to sea, and another spends time working for the resistance movement. Though no obvious plot surfaces in this drama, each sympathetic character has his own story to tell. French-born Gabriel Axel would continue to direct films in Denmark, earning critical success. Over 20 years after Paradis Retur, he would win a British Academy Award and an American Oscar for his highly acclaimed drama, Babette's Feast (1987).