A Pure Place (2021) is a Germany and Greece-produced horror and mystery drama set on a remote Greek island where siblings Paul and Irina grow up as part of the religious community of the mysterious guru Fust.
In the movie, a young and feeble boy named Paul (12) is kept captive along with his sister Irina (15) and a couple of other grubby kids on a secluded island in Greece. They spend their days manufacturing soap for their boss, a religious fanatic and self-proclaimed guru called Fust, son to a German industrialist and a Greek mother. The charismatic leader presents himself as a successor of ancient priests, promoting a cult of “purity” mixing Greek mythology and the legend of Hygeia, the Goddess of health, with Wagnerian pathos. In the upper world, the compound is filled with a swarm of members who seek to become clean and enlightened, while in the manufacturing underworld, children and the “unclean” alike celebrate their grimy existence. The siblings’ harmonic life amidst the dirt is threatened when Irina is invited to join the upper world of the cult and discovers a newfound taste for praise and desire. A jealous Paul, not accepting his sister’s wish to become clean, plots a plan against the cult and the figures that have disrupted his life. With the help of his unwashed friends, Paul takes matters into his own hands and seeks to save Irina before the arrival of the last sign which will mark the transition into a better world, Elysion.
This is the new movie from the co-writer and director Nikias Chryssos, whose debut feature film, the bizarre horror and comedy Der Bunker (2015), was awards-nominated at the 2015 Berlinale and achieved several other awards and nominations. Lars Henning Jung, an awards-winner filmmaker with his drama film Höhere Gewalt (2008), has been the co-writer of the screenplay.
A Pure Place (2021) is starring Sam Louwyck, Greta Bohacek, Claude Heinrich, Daniel Sträßer, Daniel Fripan, Wolfgang Czeczor, Lena Lauzemis, Mariella Josephine Aumann, Chara Mata Giannatou, Adrian Frieling, and Vasiliki Troufakou.
The movie has achieved several awards and nominations including the winner of the Grimmfest Award for Best Screenplay. It has taken part in the festivals Munich International Film Festival, Filmkunstmesse Leipzig, Braunschweig International Film Festival, and Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Now it is scheduled for a digital release on April 7, 2023, by Dark Sky Films.
Watch the official trailer for A Pure Place (2021).
