Strand Releasing has acquired all US rights to Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy: Paradise: Love, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope.

The project is about three women from one family. Paradise: Love, which premiered in Cannes and also plays at TIFF, is about an Austrian woman, Teresa, going to Kenya in search of love. Paradise: Faith, which premiered in Venice and won the jury prize, is about a devout missionary woman (Teresa’s sister) who argues with her estranged husband.

The third film, Paradise: Hope, is due out in 2013 and will deal with a teenager (Teresa’s daughter) who goes to a diet camp and falls in love.

The deal was done between Jon Gerrans of Strand Releasing and Olimpia Pont Cháfer of Coproduction Office.

“Ulrich Seidl is such a unique auteur, one that definitely fits Strand’s sensibilities and we’re looking forward to handling the US distribution of this trilogy,” said Gerrans.

“It is a big project in the modern film industry. We are very happy to work with Strand Releasing who will make an excellent “handmade” marketing for the film and position Ulrich Seidl in the US,” added Philippe Bober, Coproduction Office’s CEO.

Strand plans for a 2013 release for all three films beginning in the first quarter.

The trilogy has sold to Austria (Stadtkino), Belgium (Lumière), CIS (Maywin), Denmark (Ost for Paradis), France (Happiness), Germany (Neue Visionen), Greece (Feelgood), Italy (Archibald & Academy2), Luxembourg (Lumière), Netherlands (Eye Institut), Norway (AS Fidalgo) , Poland (Against Gravity), South Korea (World Cinema), Spain (Golem), Sweden (Triart) and the UK (Soda Pictures).

Paradise: Love has sold to Argentina (LAT-E), Bulgaria (A Plus), Chile (LaRed), Costa Rica (LaRed), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Hungary (Anjou Lafayette), Israel (Orlando Films), Mexico (Mantarraya & Interior13), Paraguay (LaRed), Romania (Cloro Film) and Uruguay (LaRed).