Ana the Cleaner, 2026.
Directed by Guy Bauer.
Starring Yana Roykhman, Law Tarello, Katie L. Fetting, Caleb Harbin, Ilana Kohanchi, Tara Hazel Walsh, Mickey O’Sullivan, Connor Green, and Sarah Jersild.
SYNOPSIS:
Ana spends her days cleaning the homes of Chicago’s elite while feeding an obsession with true crime. When one of her clients suddenly disappears, Ana becomes convinced she’s uncovered the perfect murder.
Junk-food true-crime podcasts seem like a perfect listen for cleaning, especially for a job looking after the homes of the wealthy Chicago elite. With Ana the Cleaner, director Guy Bauer and screenwriter Katie L. Fetting have envisioned the eponymous Ana (Yana Roykhman), who takes on a new job for a married couple set to vacation for their anniversary, as possibly either having a hyperactive imagination or genuinely stumbling into a suspicious crime. While working, she discovers what could be a finger in the dishwasher. To make matters more unsettling, the husband has returned home with no trace of the wife.
What undoubtedly sets this film apart from other mainstream mysteries is the film’s unflinching acknowledgment of Ana as an undocumented Ukrainian immigrant, alongside her relatives, who could potentially put themselves in danger by bringing awareness of the situation to the police. The film doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the brute-force terror of ICE, though it balances that with a tone that keeps the proceedings fun and turns standard cleaning into detective work.
Ana also fields plenty of jokes from her family, most of them claiming she either imagined what she saw or has it twisted. In their defense, true-crime podcasting is always in her ears (a voiceover performance from the aforementioned screenwriter), leaving one wondering whether the film will eventually take a more surreal turn about what’s real and what isn’t. However, given the husband’s coldness, it is also fair to say Ana should keep trusting her gut. She also befriends a practicing lawyer who also provides advice as she pieces together more clues and information. Naturally, while she is nervous, there is also a touch of excitement in that, through relatively boring work, she might be getting a taste of what it’s like to live out her investigative dreams.
The film doesn’t go much deeper than what’s presented on the service, but for a micro low-budget feature filled with relative newcomers behind and in front of the camera, the revelations, even if somewhat cliché, are a bit more hidden than what Hollywood offers up lately. Guy Bauer also makes great use of a limited filming space, having Ana essentially scour every inch of it while showing off the home’s luxurious qualities.
However, Ana the Cleaner mostly works because of the circumstances outside the standard mystery that hundreds of movies and books have viewers prepared for. She is a likable person, an undocumented immigrant with a hell of a lot to lose from pursuing the truth and justice, crafty when her search gets her in trouble and backed into a corner, all in an honest reflection of the horrors of the real world.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
