Clean

Zerán (The Remainder) delivers a tense, literary thriller about a maid and the well-to-do but troubled family she works for. The story opens with the maid, Estela, making a desperate plea to be released from the locked room in which she’s been placed, about to be interrogated about the death of the young daughter of her employers. If she tells the full story behind the death of the girl, she bargains, the people behind the one-way mirror must release her. But, as Estela explains, finding the beginning of the story is not as simple as it may seem. She decides to start with her arrival at the house shortly before the daughter’s birth but takes many detours before ending on the day of the death in question. What follows are dehumanizing experiences of a live-in maid losing touch with reality and humanity, as well as the implosion of a family that seemingly has everything. Estela’s fast-paced monologue about what she’s seen in her employers’ house touches upon class, power, wealth, and violence.