CIFF 2012: The Cleaner

In Lima, there is a plague that has decimated the population. Middle aged Eusebio (Victor Prada) works as a biohazard cleaner, mopping up blood and disinfecting the homes of people who have died. In one such house he finds a survivor, a boy named Joaquin (Adrian Du Bois).

Not knowing what to do with the kid, Eusebio tries to get help from social workers and doctors. But they are either unhelpful or overworked. Eusebio takes Joaquin home where, in distress, Joaquin hides in the closet. Eusebio continues with his life and job, trying to draw Joaquin out of his fear and at the same time trying to locate a relative of Joaquin's to take him.

Many of the settings are empty and lacking life, even normally populated urban settings like a subway train or airport. Often Eusebio is the only character onscreen as he methodically cleans.

The way the two characters interact is natural and uncloying. Eusebio's method of drawing the boy out is just as determined and methodical as his cleaning work, and yet he seems to understand in an understated way just how far to gently push Joaquin to trust him. At the end of the story we wonder if Eusebio's life is made richer by his relationship of the boy, of caring for someone as if he were his own child, with his best interests in mind, or even if circumstances were different if Eusebio might have kept the boy with him.

The acting was good in this, and the story is not heavy with dialogue. Minimal casting helps with the feel of an unpopulated city. While the science is not expertly rendered--for instance Eusebio returns home each night and uses a spray bottle to disinfect himself then jumps in the shower as if that is the proper way to clean up any biohazard germs--it is enough for us to get the idea of what's going on and what his job is.

The simple title, too, conveys a double meaning--Eusebio not only cleans the biohazard fluids, but also the emotionally damaging messes people have created for themselves.