In A Pure Place, siblings Paul (Claude Heinrich) and Irina (Greta Bohacek) work in a soap factory located on a remote island that also holds the headquarters and living quarters of a religious community. Things get out of control when leader Fust (Sam Louwyck) invites one of the siblings to join the community, leaving the other in the factory. Great things seem to be headed the way of the new member, and evil will be unleashed when jealousy, wrath and revenge mix to meet their faiths. 

A Pure Place is a film based on sects where the ideology generally involves keeping a person pure, clean and free of sin. In this case, the leader, which seems to be developed under the usual known profile of a real-life cult leader, dictates the idea of keeping the body clean with a special soap manufactured in the island by the kids. Mind and heart don’t matter when it comes to salvation, at least for the followers and their leader since they act and speak awfully of others, to the point they mock who they consider to be inferior. Some acts are punished, while others are overlooked– and everything is regulated under classism. So far, the idea is good and we could assume the story has been developed in such a way it makes the audience think if there are social analogies and challenge their intellect to identify and analyze it. Sadly this doesn’t happen and there is great disappointment with the absence of character in the script, a lot of confusing elements that seem pointless and don’t add up to what is shown, and a strange mix of flashbacks.

The development of the plot seems to be incomplete as it has many plot-holes and some inconsistencies. More questions are left about the motives of the characters than clarifications about the purpose of the film. For example, the antagonist’s backstory is revealed during the third act, when everything should start to connect with the actions of the prior ones, but it looks like the writer decided to include it as part of an unexpected twist that only gives more weight to the “why” without trying to give answers– is the antagonist acting out of revenge for their childhood traumas? Is the character committing heinous acts to unleash their dark side? Or could it be they’re just a white-suited millionaire craving to feed their ego?

Leaving this aside, let’s highlight how magnificent the handling of the camera and the framing of each shot are. From beginning to end, it is possible to appreciate the artistic side of cinematographer Yoshi Heimrath making each scene look lustrous and extravagant despite having few elements in the sets. It’s beautiful how even during the last few minutes, when the game changes completely in the way the characters see the world, they find a way to make even coarser what for the viewer could be any big city.

From my personal experience, I enjoyed watching A Pure Place, even if this review seems to go the other way. I found it to be very entertaining and crowd-pleasing for its light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel outcome. However, this doesn’t take away that I was left with many questions unanswered once the credits rolled. I was rooting for it to be a spectacular film, but it only left me with an indifferent aftertaste– I probably shouldn’t have drank the Kool-Aid of high expectations.

6 OUT OF 10 PIGS