Country: Finland / Estonia
Review: “Purge” is a Finnish bleak drama, based on the best-selling novel by Sofi Oksanen. It tells the life stories of two women, whose memories needed to be purged after years of torments and pain. After having found each other, they will be able to put some hope on their lives. This is the kind of story that we already have seen for so many times, and if it doesn’t get the perfect mood or the right approach, it will fall on banality. That’s what happened to “Purge”. In one hand: scenes of violence and exploitation; in the other: a bloody love story adorned with political connotations and inevitable betrayals. Hope emerges as a possibility in the end, but was achieved through unconvincing sequences of self-repentance and killings. “Purge” was selected to represent Finland at the 85th Academy Awards, but it falls short from what I expected from a drama of this kind.
