“Cleanliness is part of faith.”
That dogmatic proverb has long been internalised into the bodies and minds of people, becoming an unwritten rule that governs our lives in one way or another. In Thomas Fürhapter’s documentary, obsession manifests into a system that is almost religious; a faith in neatness, order, tidiness, and a(n idealised) spotless world. Cleaning & Cleansing (2024) observes how humanity bows down before the hygienic apparatus that they themselves have created, believing that even a speck of dirt is sinful, that what is unclean must be erased for the sake of a peaceful social order. Cleanliness, then, isn’t merely a daily practice, but a dogma that purifies while simultaneously excludes. Excluding those deemed dirty.
Cinematically, the film, too, appears spotless; static camera, precise composition, clinical lighting. Minimal verbal narration; rich in visual gestures that are tidy yet unsettling. Unsettling for there is a subtle awareness about the inner workings of a dominating hygienic system. Hands wiping tables, liquids being sprayed, machines humming—resembling modern litanies. Fürhapter turns cleanliness into cinematic form incarnate, as if the film itself wishes to be washed free from meaning. Behind the “clean” visuals, we are made aware of something whirring in harshness: humans cleaning other humans; for traces of stains left by people must be erased by other, unnamed human hands. This sacred labour then carries an almost religious exhaustion—a penance endlessly repeating.
In the end, Cleaning & Cleansing (2024) brings us back to the simplest yet most unsettling question: why must everything be cleaned? Beneath the rhetoric of hygiene, the film reveals a façade of a civilization that washes its hands not only of dirt, but of guilt, historical sins, and violence that are neatly swept away under the expressions of “cleanliness” and “pureness.” It shows that every act of cleaning always leaves behind residues of memory, bodies, and wounds. And it is at that very point where the film stands; between utopia and dystopia, between the desire to be sterile and the fear of becoming too pure. But again, as the saying goes: isn’t cleanliness part of faith? (Hesty N. Tyas) (Ed. Vanis/Trans. Timmie)
Film Details
Cleaning & Cleansing
Thomas Fürhapter | 91 min | 2024 | Austria
Official Selection for Utopia/Dystopia
Festival Film Dokumenter 2025
