He is the most performed contemporary composer in the world. Nevertheless, he also rarely ventures out in public, keeps quiet about his music, feels at home in the forests of Estonia and generates therewith – perhaps involuntarily – the impression of a recluse, which is attributed to him again and again: Arvo Pärt.

The Estonian composer, who will celebrate his 90th birthday on September 11, 2025, verily exudes even solely by his appearance an aura of a mystic or an ascetic. He himself says: “I am no prophet, no cardinal, not a monk, not even a vegetarian.” But he is without a doubt a devout man, who has been a member of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1970, and under pressure from the Soviet apparatus of power was forced to leave his native Estonia in 1980. Via Vienna he arrived in Berlin, which for the next 30 years would become his second home and also the starting point for his international career.

“The Lost Paradise” is the first international documentary about Arvo Pärt. It is quite an astonishment that such a shy artist has given his consent to be accompanied by a camera for an entire year: In his native Estonia, travelling to Germany, Italy, and Japan, where Pärt received the Praemium Imperiale, the world’s most prestigious award in the field of music, in October 2014.

The film is framed by the identically named stage production “Adam’s Passion,” featuring three key works by Arvo Pärt, which American director Robert Wilson brought to the stage in May 2015 in a former submarine factory, the “Noblessner Foundry” in Tallinn.

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Director: Günter Atteln
Duration: 01:00