Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

This documentary plays on your senses, putting you into deep relaxation. As a viewer, you are part of the group of Estonian women, exchanging stories with each other in the steaming hot sauna. They are stories about femininity, solidarity, they are intimate and light-hearted stories. Finnish smoke saunas are traditionally a place where you can both cleanse your body and your mind. Director Anna Hints captures this aptly, showing the vulnerability and playfulness of womanhood.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood moves through the seasons as bodies come together and sweat, water and tears merge. The backdrop of the changing forest and the alternation of the oppressive heat of the conversations with the refreshing silences of the surroundings make Hint's first feature length film a cinematic delight to watch. The film premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where it immediately won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.