[Review] Grimmfest Easter: A Pure Place
Irina and her younger brother, Paul, have grown up on a secluded Greek island as members of a cult lead by the charismatic Fust. The religious community believe that Fust has come to them to rid their world of “the dirt” and liberate them. Those living in the upstairs have worked themselves free of the restraints of dirt, whilst those in the downstairs will have to continue to work until they have proven themselves worthy.
For the children of the island, days are spent manufacturing soap and delivering the soap to their leader, Fust, who is a charismatic cult leader. Fust has led his followers to believe that he has come from far away to lead them on a path of being pure and win the war against the dirt. Irina, a firstling, catches the eye of Fust at a ceremony type ritual, where they have delivered soap. Irina is dragged into the world of the pure and given tasks that aren’t typically offered to firstlings. Once Irina is accepted into “home,” Paul experiences a deep spiral of needing to have his sister retrieved from the leader's grasp.
A Pure Place explores the dark totalitarian relationships that are present within secret societies – that often leak out into the mainstream. Fust is a narcissistic leader who appears to have obsessive tendencies regarding cleanliness. There are moments where we are confronted with scenes of Fust scrubbing his body clean to the point of essentially hurting himself. These scenes are incredibly unsettling, as this obsession has been inflicted on those who have chosen to follow him.
Much like the Jonestown massacre, A Pure Place focuses on the concept of being absolved and transcending into a higher being. Irina is recruited to a play that the upstairs has been planning, something they call the great performance. There are many uncomfortable and cult-like behaviours depicted throughout the film that intend to make the audience hyper aware of their strange actions and rituals. I have read pieces that have compared A Pure Place to cult films such as Midsommar, and I can certainly see where those comparisons are drawn from. There is something disturbing about watching people let go of the control that they have over themselves.
The film is incredibly gritty and shows the stark contrast that is apparent between those who are considered clean and those who are still affected by the dirt. The incorporation of religious sentiment demonstrates the control and power dynamics between the haves and the have nots, whilst that is a reductive statement made about Fust and his followers, the film shows the derangement that it takes to elevate a person to Fust’s status. The storytelling is fantastic, and weaves a story of insidious power and narcissism that only a totalitarian figure can emanate. There are scenes throughout that are absolutely captivating, with the dialogue written and the performances of the leads; Irina played by Greta Bohacek, and Fust played by Sam Louwyck.
A Pure Place plays out like a dark thriller, incorporating thriller-esque elements of storytelling and fables that make for an entertaining and story-driven tale. The film carries strong religious overtones that manifest in cult members engaging in self-flagellating to extract the dirt from their bodies. There are scenes where members speak in parables about their rituals and what ridding the dirt means to them as those who have moved upstairs. Everything that the residents of the island do revolves around the need to be clean. At the start of the film, the children share a fairy tale about those who are not clean are cast out and thrown out of the island to be fed upon by the rats.
The movie provides the audience with a suffocating narrative that depicts the Machiavellian nature of cults and their inner circles. The grimy and grubbing feeling of A Pure Place and Fust’s cunningness washed over me for sometime after watching.
