El Limpiador Review

Lima, Peru is overrun with a plague that is killing inhabitants without mercy. The only people not susceptible to this plague are the children and as a result, the shelters and orphanages are filled to capacity. This is the premise of writer/director Adrian Saba's "El Limpiador (The Cleaner)," a solemn but artful look at death and loneliness.

At the center of the film is a forensic cleaner Eusebio Vela, a lonely and seemingly apathetic man to the pain around him. He has essentially been desensitized by his line of work and goes about his business without a care in the world. But then he runs into Joaquin, an orphan who is not particularly keen to communicating to those around him. When Eusebio realizes that there is nowhere to take the boy, he takes him to live with him in his rusty old apartment. What follows is the growth of a tender relationship that gives the core of the story warmth amidst the otherwise cold and apocalyptic veneer.  Continue Reading