Exclusive Trailer for Denis Côté’s Paul Captures Coping with Depression Through Cleaning

Carving out a fascinating filmography with his uncompromising, intimate character studies, Canadian director Denis Côté returns this year with Paul, a new documentary premiering at the Panorama Dokumente section of Berlinale 2025. Capturing the submissive “Cleaning Simp Paul,” who embarks on doing housework for dominant women as a way to cope with depression, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the first trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Paul struggles with depression and social anxiety. He leads a solitary and routine-bound existence spent mostly at home. But, as a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, he is always thinking up new ways to make his world brighter and more ornate. Seeking safety and security, he embarks on an unusual job: doing housework for dominant women. As the submissive ‘Cleaning Simp Paul,’ he succeeds in breaking out of his angst-ridden routine. Obsessed with his Instagram profile, Paul retreats into a self-prescribed, virtual therapeutic fantasy that he calls ‘Cleaning to Save My Life.’ One Insta reel at a time, he battles to find inner peace by pleasing his favourite dominatrices. Filmed from a candid, non-judgemental perspective, Paul is a portrait of an eccentric but endearing human being that delivers a unique take on our sometimes idiosyncratic quest for well-being.”

“Similar to what I achieved with my six strongmen/bodybuilders around 2017 in the film Ta peau si lisse, it was important that this be a patient observational documentary,” said Denis Côté. “I wanted to make a nonjudgmental film, as light and enigmatic as Paul’s uncertain quest. Despite seven months of filming, during which I avidly followed his daily Instagram reels, I still do not fully grasp what, precisely, drives Paul in Cleaning to Save my Life. I wanted to share this enigma with an audience that has little knowledge of simps or BDSM. Another highly topical theme also worked its way into the project: the desire to have a very strong presence on social media. It is an addictive, obsession-inducing, malleable, controllable world. In a word, a safe space.”

See the exclusive trailer below.

The post Exclusive Trailer for Denis Côté’s Paul Captures Coping with Depression Through Cleaning first appeared on The Film Stage.