The opening scene of rundown apartment blocks conjured images of economic inequality, poor education, gang violence, and more. The film opens up on an average, early morning scene in which a young woman realises her monthly menstrual cycle has begun and there are no period products for her to access in their home. 

Director Emma Branderhorst has approached female periods with subtlety and resolve to highlight the difficulty that exists to access inexpensive ‘female sanitary products’; it knows no boundaries, no colour, creed or ethnic bias.

The storyline also bares open the mental duress suffered by any menstruating individual who’s struggling to access period products. Ruby wakes up one morning to discover that her period has started. Ruby is well aware of her family’s financial situation and tries desperately to get a tampon, she asks at the local foodbank when picking up groceries, and eventually, she turns to a school friend for help. A young girl’s desperation to handle an issue, that she believes is her burden to bear, eventually causes her to turn to shoplift for tampons. 

The storyline also bares open the mental duress suffered by any menstruating individual who’s struggling to access period products

Watching an emotional Ruby crying after getting caught shoplifting and being picked up by her mother was overwhelming, to say the least. It is something that certainly creates an empathetic response in viewers. 

Watching an emotional Ruby crying after getting caught shoplifting and being picked up by her mother was overwhelming, to say the least

Director of photography Myrthe Mosterman has kept the cinematography simple and real, everyday living with its ups and its downs.

Spotless is a film that made me stand back and reflect on ‘poverty’; a tragic human manifestation. 

‘Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.’  Nelson Mandela

A review by Sonia McCloud