Clean

Clean is a 2022 documentary about the life of Sandra Pankhurst. The film follows Pankhurst and her team of cleaners who clean crime scenes, places where people have committed suicide, and incidents of hoarding. It was directed by Lachlan Mcleod and released in Australia in June 2022. The film has screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It was nominated for two awards at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in 2022. Clean was well received by audiences and critics. Synopsis Clean focuses on the life of Pankhurst, detailing how she was forcibly given up by her birth mother and her subsequent adoption by a family that did not want her. Pankhurst was evicted at seventeen. Pankhurst was male and later married and had children, but the marriage eventually failed once Pankhurst realised she wished to transition. She tells the story of how she changed her name from Peter to Sandra, working in several jobs before becoming a funeral director. She married a second time, though this ended in divorce. The majority of the documentary focuses on Pankhurst's later life as the owner and operator of a trauma cleaning service named Specialist Trauma Cleaning Services, a cleaning company specialising in crime scene clean-up and hoarder restoration. The documentary follows Pankhurst as she attends various jobs across Melbourne, where she demonstrates and discusses the nature and challenges of cleaning crime scenes and assisting those living in squalor. Pankhurst reveals she is terminally ill, and this is likely due to exposure to cleaning chemicals early on in her business's development. Pankhurst is shown attending speaking events across Melbourne. Towards the end of the film, her employees are notified that Pankhurst has succumbed to her illness and passed away. Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 15 reviews. The film was described as being "shot plainly" without fanfare, although one critic did call the addition of re-enactments of events from Pankhurst's past an "unnecessary major misstep". Variety also described the re-creation scenes as unnecessary but noted Clean "remains an engaging, spirited documentary, designed less to provoke than to inspire". Clean was the film chosen to close the 70th Melbourne International Film Festival.