Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

In a hut deep in the snow-covered forest, women of all ages and social classes meet to take a sauna together. Taboos fall with the covers. Gentle voices whisper unspoken fears and painful realisations into the protective darkness of the steam-filled sauna. Caught by the quiet listening of their companions, the women tell of their first loves, but also of sexual assaults and unbearable labour pains. Filmmaker Anna Hints accompanies this transformative ritual in "Smoke Sauna Sisterhood". The documentary film, almost mystical in its intimacy, shows women not as they are, but as they are becoming, telling of the changes that inscribe themselves into a woman's life and body. Thanks to its deep empathy and humanity, the film provides an unvarnished yet always extremely focussed look inside the smoke saunas - a tradition that has been declared an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.

With an authentic voice, the film interweaves female experiences of pain and life with a protective layer of natural materials: wood, heat and birch branches are the coordinates in this archaic and enchanting film, which looks on with relish at how community can develop as long as there is only one shared space available. SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD is reminiscent of classic Vermeer or Rembrandt paintings and makes the healing effect of feminine solidarity palpable.

At the Sundance Film Festival, Anna Hints was honoured with the award for Best Director in the "World Cinema Documentary" series.