Anna Hints’ Sundance-winning documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, sold by Autlook, was awarded the Documentary prize at European Film Awards during the ceremony held December 9 in Berlin.
The film’s logline reads: In the darkness of a smoke sauna, women share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences, washing off the shame trapped in their bodies and regaining their strength through a sense of communion.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood won ahead of four other striking documentaries:
- APOLONIA, APOLONIA directed by Lea Glob (Denmark, Poland)
- FOUR DAUGHTERS (LES FILLES D’OLFA) directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (France, Tunisia, Germany, Saudi Arabia)
- MOTHERLAND directed by Hanna Badziaka & Alexander Mihalkovich (Sweden, Ukraine, Norway)
- ON THE ADAMANT (SUR L’ADAMANT) directed by Nicolas Philibert (France, Japan)
Talking to Business Doc Europe earlier this year, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood director Anna Hints described the almost mystical sensation of the smoke sauna.
“When you enter the smoke sauna, you greet it,” she said. “There is a certain personification. There is this specific smell and it is dark. And you really get this feeling that when you take off your clothes, you [remove] these of concepts about yourself.”
“There is this space where you don’t see. There is no electricity. There might be candles, but sometimes when you actually go there is no light at all,” she continues. “And in that candle light, you don’t look into the eye of the other person, but you feel the other person, you feel the body, you feel the presence, you feel what they’re talking. And there is just this heat. You sweat…and you can have all kinds of feelings in your body or sensations.”
The Business Doc Europe review of the film says: “Anna Hints’ film is both beautiful and gently profound as it offers a delicate and supportive insight into the lives of these women. The small wooden sauna may well be modest and simple but it provides and intimate and immersive place for emotional and physical barriers to be dropped and for emotional and vital conversations to be had. A moving and triumphant film, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood deserves its awards and attention.”
The 2023 European Film Awards ceremony was presented by the European Film Academy and European Film Academy Productions.
Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy, commented after all the gongs were handed out: “What a night! It was an honour to give the stage to all these wonderful and talented European filmmakers from all arts and crafts of the industry creating captivating movies, telling unforgettable stories and reflecting all facets of human life. For us, it was wonderful to be able to honour their excellency with the European Film Awards. We are looking forward to seeing everyone next year in Lucerne!”
