A young man takes a scalpel to his wrists and the blood flows freely. He is in purgatory. Whether it is a temporal existence or a state of being, all he knows is self hatred and utter despair. He mutilates himself in increasingly violent ways, from eating his own flesh to disembowelment, only to find himself whole again, trapped in an eternal loop of hopelessness. He is alone except for a spectral female figure carrying a sickle, who silently witnesses his futile attempts to end his miserable torment.

Purgatory is a short film by Montréal film maker, Eric Falardeau. Set in a suitably foul looking location and shot on super 8mm, Eric manages to admirably portray the utter despair of this wretched soul sentenced to expiate his unrevealed sins. It looks like it was made sometime in a distant past, the horrible, grainy film stock being the perfect choice to compliment the bleak subject matter. There is no dialogue at all in Purgatory, leaving the main character, played by Miguel Doucet, to convey his suffering with impressive acting skills. The story is very simple on the surface; a man caught in purgatory trying desperately to end his misery by various means. In a press release, when asked about the meaning of his film, the director explained; ”Purgatory is an atmospheric picture about self-hating, through graphic automutilations, of a man faced to his own purgatory“. I found myself questioning if there was more to it than that; why was he in this state? Was he really dead or was he hallucinating? Who was the woman and what was the significance of the mirror? I think the ambiguity of this film makes it a far more interactive experience than simply being the voyeur of a snuff movie from hell. Purgatory succeeds on just about every level and I’m certainly anticipating good things from Eric Falardeau in the future. S.J.T.

Purgatory.   2006

Directed by Eric Falardeau

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