The official trailer for The Cleanse has now been released, ahead of its premiere next week at Pinewood Studios.
Written and directed by Taz Ayoub, The Cleanse is one of the original short films created as part of the Actors Studio 1 Year Screen Acting Programme. The film stars Joseph Picker, Rebecca Moir, Julia Saboya, Jennifer Stender and Monica Higuera — all actors from the programme — in a sharp, unsettling ensemble piece about the parts of ourselves we wish we could remove.
Anger. Anxiety. Indifference. Grief. Indecision.
At first, it sounds like a solution. A clean break. A chance to become lighter, better, easier to live with. But as the trailer begins to reveal, The Cleanse asks a far more uncomfortable question: what happens to the parts of ourselves we try to throw away?
The story follows a group of strangers waiting inside an unfamiliar room, each having arrived for their own personal “cleanse”. Some are nervous. Some are defensive. Some are there for deeply personal reasons, while others appear to be treating it as little more than a social milestone.
What starts as awkward conversation slowly becomes something far more disturbing. The group begin to realise that the procedure may not be as simple, painless or consequence-free as they were led to believe.
It is a clever premise: intimate, contained and actor-led, but with a much bigger idea sitting underneath it. The film explores identity, emotional avoidance and the very human desire to edit ourselves into something more acceptable. It has humour, tension and a growing sense of unease — the kind of short film that gives actors real material to play, rather than simply a scene to perform.
For Joseph Picker, Rebecca Coleman, Julia Saboya, Jennifer Stender and Monica Higuera, The Cleanse represents exactly what the 1 Year Screen Acting Programme is designed to offer: the opportunity to work on original screen material, build complex characters, collaborate with a director, and experience the demands of a professional filming environment.
Under Taz Ayoub’s direction, the trailer gives a strong taste of the film’s tone — controlled, strange, funny and increasingly unsettling. The world feels just heightened enough to pull us away from reality, while the characters remain recognisably human. Their fears, regrets and contradictions are what drive the piece.
With the premiere taking place next week at Pinewood Studios, there is a real sense of excitement around seeing the finished film on the big screen, alongside the work of the actors who helped bring it to life.
The Cleanse is a brilliant example of what can happen when training moves beyond the classroom and into production. It gives actors a world to inhabit, a character to fight for, and a story that demands emotional truth — even inside a concept that is far from ordinary.
The official trailer is available to watch now. The full film premieres next week at Pinewood Studios.
