The Way to Paradise () is a 1970 Croatian film directed by Mario Fanelli and written by Miroslav Krleà ¾a, starring Boris BuzanÃÂiàand Ljuba TadiÃÂ. Krleà ¾a based the script on his own novellas The Cricket under a Waterfall and The Finale. It was the first film adaptation of his literary work, and the only one he was personally involved with. The film was made for Television Zagreb and is the first ever Croation television film.
A man dies and goes to heaven, escaping the predicament of the modern civilisation. However, once there, he encounters similar people and situations.
The film was poorly received at the time of its release. Croatian cinema historian Ivo à  krabalo described it as a film where "Krleà ¾ian rhetoric was not completed by suggestive development of the plot, so that one could hear only an outpouring of words on the screen, without connected connotations found in literature." The film did not enter competition at the 1971 Pula Film Festival.
Krleà ¾a disagreed with the critics of The Way to Paradise who had argued that extensive "meditative dialogue" dominated the film, maintaining his belief that "the human word in a film is equivalent to camera" and that without it, film is "merely commedia dell'arte and nothing else". Nevertheless, he was disappointed by the reception, and denied permissions for film adaptations of his works for the rest of his life.