Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Võro: Savvusanna sõsarad, lit. 'Sisters of the smoke sauna') is a 2023 documentary film written and directed by Anna Hints in her feature directorial debut. It is about a group of women who gather in a smoke sauna where they clean the dirt from their ashamed and aching bodies. It was selected as the Estonian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. It is a co-production between Estonia, France and Iceland.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2023, where it competed in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and won the Directing Award at the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Release
Festivals
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood had its world premiere on 22 January 2023, at the Sundance Film Festival, then it was screened on 17 March of that year at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, on 31 March at the Stockfish Film Festival, on 23 April at the San Francisco International Film Festival, on 13 May at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity, on 18 May at the Barcelona Documentary Film Festival, on 19 May at the Seattle International Film Festival, on 24 June at the Filmfest München, on 31 July at the New Zealand International Film Festival, on 4 August at the Melbourne International Film Festival and on 29 September in the Documentary Competition at the Zurich Film Festival.
Theatrical
It was commercially released on 23 March 2023, in Estonian theaters. It was released at cinemas in the UK and Ireland from 13 October 2023.
Reception
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 48 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Running the gamut from tears to laughter, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood finds cinematic poetry in the simple act of observing conversation." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
See also
- List of submissions to the 96th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
- List of Estonian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
References
External links
- Smoke Sauna Sisterhood at IMDb
