Yesterday I finally attended a screening of Anna Hints' award-winning documentary 'Smoke Sauna Sisterhood'. I have wanted to see this film for quite a while and was pleased when I found a convenient session time that didn't require too much travelling to reach the venue. While I was sitting in the auditorium waiting for the film to begin, I was hoping to hear some Estonian spoken among the audience, unfortunately I didn't. Afterwards however, my ears did prick up when I heard some Estonian coming from the back of the cinema - it was the couple who arrived late after the film had started. I thought that was very un-Estonian of them to arrive late!
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is well deserving of all its awards. One thing I must stress however, if you don't have a good command of the Estonian language, you must watch the film with subtitles otherwise you won't understand it. The film is very dialogue driven, with lots of stories shared by the women in the sauna. Some of the stories are very funny and make you laugh out loud, whilst others are very dark and harrowing in nature. It is good that the Estonian filmmakers didn't shy away from the dark subject matter that the film covers.
The documentary depicts the Estonian smoke sauna tradition through the year's four seasons. The bond between the women is shown in the way they take care of each, laugh with each other and empathise with each other during sauna sessions. Estonians love to sing and this is also present in the film. The women chant as a means to heal and feel stronger. Belly tapping often accompanies the chanting and makes a great substitute for a drum! All in all, it was great to see this ancient pagan tradition is still important today as it was centuries ago.
