Cleaning & Cleansing

Utopia/Dystopia
202492 minPG
Cleaning & Cleansing

Synopsis

In Cleaning & Cleansing (2024), director Thomas Fürhapter offers a meticulous and haunting meditation on modern society’s obsession with purity, order, and control. Through a series of observational vignettes, the film examines spaces and practices where physical cleanliness intersects with psychological and ideological cleansing. From sterile corporate environments to ritualistic purification ceremonies, the film reveals the invisible systems that dictate how we live, work, and relate to one another.

 

With precise cinematography and a minimalistic narrative approach, Fürhapter challenges viewers to reflect on the boundaries between hygiene, surveillance, and conformity. The film unfolds like a quiet, unsettling symphony of routines and regulations, inviting us to question what lies beneath the surface of our polished realities.

Schedule

FFD 2025
  • 24 November 2025, 15:15 WIB

    Langgeng Art Foundation
  • 28 November 2025, 13:00 WIB

    Pascasarjana ISI

Credits

Director
  • Thomas Fürhapter

    Thomas Fürhapter was born in Vienna, Austria. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and is now a writer, director, and producer. His films have been screened and awarded at numerous festivals, including Sarajevo, Zurich FF, CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig, DOK.Munich, Sheffield, DOCVILLE Leuven, BAFICI, DOXA Vancouver, FID Marseille, etc.

Producer
  • Weina Zhao

    Weina Zhao, born in 1986 in Beijing and grew up in Vienna. After completing her master’s degree in Sinology, she worked on various documentary films. Since 2012, she has been active as a director and screenwriter for her own film and radio projects. Cleaning & Cleansing (2024) is her first film as a producer.

Details

Country of ProductionAustria
Production HouseElectric Shadows Films
Spoken LanguagesAustrian German, Slovak
SubtitleEnglish
ColorColor
Previous Festival2024 Ji.hlava | Opus Bonum | Award for Original Approach
2025 FIPADOC | International Competition
2025 DOK.fest Munich | Viktoria DOK.deutsch
2025 Docville Leuven | Outside the Dox
2025 BAFICI Buenos Aires | Avant-Garde & Genre Official Competition

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