High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Stranger Than Paradise is a 1984 American absurdist/deadpan comedy film. It was written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and stars jazz musician John Lurie, former Sonic Youth drummer-turned-actor Richard Edson, and Hungarian-born actress Eszter Balint. The film features a minimalist plot in which the main character, Willie, has a cousin from Hungary, Eva, stay with him for ten days before going to Cleveland. Willie and his friend Eddie eventually go to Cleveland to visit Eva.