Estonian Women get very real in a Remote Sauna
DIRECTED BY ANNA HINTS/ESTONIAN/2023
DVD RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 23, 2024/GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT (via Kino Lorber)
Estonian culture outside of the remote, woods-shrouded smoke sauna grounds, is never shown. It is apparent, however, that modern amenities of the west have not eluded them. It’s also apparent that Old World, archaic ways still linger, informing attitudes, decisions, and important choices. In other words, we might just have a lot in common with these people.
An American remake of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood will never happen, but if it did, it’d probably be about upper-class women cooling down after their Pilates class, venting their frustrations about men and social media. Such a desecration couldn’t arrive any faster than the never-materialized American remake of Toni Erdmann. Despite the outpouring of universal female misery, there’s something stunningly proprietary about Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Savvusanna sõsarad).
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is an undeniably entrancing mood piece. This is evident from the very start, as hushed rhythmic chanting grows louder and more intense as a nude woman breastfeeding a baby linger on screen. In front of an all black background, we don’t see her face. We only see the baby in her arms and her other breast. Tranquil but also strangely powerful.
The bulk of the unusual documentary film, however, is set in the sauna. In any given session, four or so women gather to soak in the hot steam and each other’s company. They sit, they scrub, they share. They share a lot. Judging by the film, this is a tremendously therapeutic and common communal ritual. Sometimes, they venture outside, cut a hole in the nearby frozen lake, and jump in- a shock to the system like no other.
We see plenty of bodies throughout the whole of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood; fully exposed, pores wide open with lots of sweat. The nudity, consisting of all manner of body types, is completely real-world and matter of fact. What we don’t see nearly enough of are faces. If Smoke Sauna Sisterhood has a major weakness, this is it. It’s as though filmmaker Anna Hints secured permission to film these women at their most vulnerable both physically and emotionally only on the condition that faces are not shown. The major exception is Kadi Kivilo, the group member who carries the brunt of providing all in-the-moment expressive reaction to the stories being shared. Everyone else’s faces are either artfully obscured or framed out. It’s an unfortunate conceit that can’t help but lessen the film’s impact.
Greenwich Entertainment (via Kino Lorber) has released Smoke Sauna Sisterhood on DVD for home viewing. Free of any distracting bonus features, one is freed up to go straight to the movie. Seriously though, the overall experience of this powerful film would honestly be heightened with a good, contextualizing bonus feature or two. Alas, none are here.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is an immediately striking, consistently entrancing bit of bold, collective female empowerment. In that, it’s also absolutely unique. It is a film one remembers, and marks director Anna Hints as one to keep up with.
