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Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Directed by Anna Hints
2023
Estonia, France, Iceland
89 minutes
Unclassified 15+
Book Tickets
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Nestled in the smoky warmth of an Estonian log-cabin sauna, women commune to share naked truths and heal, in this intimate, transcendent documentary. Award winner, Sundance 2023.
The practice of gathering in woodland smoke saunas is age-old tradition in Southern Estonia. In Anna Hints’s engrossing documentary, the setting takes on a transcendent character, acting as a spiritual refuge for feminine intimacy. Women can comfortably exist in their nakedness, sharing their innermost thoughts on everything from family to self-esteem, traumatic births, and sexual assault. The intensity of their communion is balanced within the restorative atmosphere, where steam hisses over rocks and Edvard Egilsson’s score heightens this choral portrait of contemporary womanhood. Sundance 2023 Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary.
Conveys the sense of a cleansing that is both physical and spiritual.
Allan Hunter, Screen International

Special Guest

Anna Hints
Director
Anna Hints is an Estonian director. Hints’s short documentary For Tomorrow Paradise Arrives (2021) initiated public awareness and grassroots movements against food waste in Estonia.

Tickets

Sat 10 Jun
9:30am
State Theatre
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Book Tickets Cancel
Sun 11 Jun
5pm
Palace Norton Street - Cinema 3
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Book Tickets Cancel
Mon 12 Jun
3:30pm
Dendy Newtown - Cinema 1
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Book Tickets Cancel
Program Strand
Europe! Voices of Women in Film
Year
2023
Classification
Unclassified 15+
Country
Estonia, France, Iceland
Language
In Estonian, Seto and Võro with English subtitles
Director
Anna Hints
Producer
Marianne Ostrat
Screenwriter
Anna Hints
Cinematographer
Ants Tammik
Editor
Hendrik Mägar, Tushar Prakash, Qutaiba Barhamji, Martin Männik, Anna Hints
Premiere
Australian Premiere
Genre
Festival Award Winners, Documentary, Women Directors, Focus on Women
Company Credits
Australian Distributor: Madman Entertainment
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