CLEANSED (2003)

In a totalitarian society in the future, the grounds of a defunct institution of higher learning are now home to an anonymous governmental entity devised to rid the society of its undesirables.

 

The abandoned rooms of the building have become the torture chambers for an ambiguous, conniving doctor who orchestrates elaborate "cleansing" rites, methodically submitting the institution's inmates to unimaginable acts of violence as a cure for their aberrant behavior. A young woman who arrives there determined to retrieve the remains of her deceased brother suddenly finds herself on a dangerous quest, meeting a suicidal youth and an ineffectual angel who resembles her brother. As they fight for their survival, the unloving tyrant desperately seeks redemption with promises of salvation made to a distant figure of a dancing girl who is confined to solitude in a peep-show booth.

 

CLEANSED is a hybrid film/theatre production of the controversial play written by the late British playwright Sarah Kane. An apocalyptic love story riddled with pain, craving and loss, it is a harrowing cautionary tale for the beginning of the new millennium.