Smoke Sauna Sisterhood | |
---|---|
Estonian | Savvusanna sõsarad |
Directed by | Anna Hints |
Written by | Anna Hints |
Produced by | Marianne Ostrat |
Cinematography | Ants Tammik |
Edited by | Qutaiba Barhamji Anna Hints Hendrik Mägar Martin Männik Tushar Prakash |
Music by | Edvard Egilsson EETER |
Production companies | Alexandra Film Kepler 22 Productions Ursus Parvus |
Release dates | 22 January 2023 (Sundance) 23 March 2023 (Estonia) 23 April 2023 (SFIFF) 13 October 2023 (UK and Ireland) |
Running time | 90 minutes[1] |
Countries | Estonia France Iceland |
Languages | Estonian Seto Võro |
Box office | $270,101[2] |
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.[3] It is about a group of women who gather in a smoke sauna where they clean the dirt from their ashamed and aching bodies.[4] It was selected as the Estonian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.[5] It is a co-production between Estonia, France and Iceland.[6]
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2023,[7] where it competed in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and won the Directing Award at the World Cinema Documentary Competition.[8]
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood had its world premiere on 22 January 2023, at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival,[9] then it was screened on 17 March of that year at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival,[10] on 31 March at the Stockfish Film Festival,[11] on 23 April at the San Francisco International Film Festival,[12] on 13 May at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity,[13] on 18 May at the Barcelona Documentary Film Festival,[14] on 19 May at the Seattle International Film Festival,[15] on 24 June at the Filmfest München,[16] on 31 July at the New Zealand International Film Festival,[17] on 4 August at the Melbourne International Film Festival[18] and on 29 September in the Documentary Competition at the Zurich Film Festival.
It was commercially released on 23 March 2023, in Estonian theaters.[19] It was released at cinemas in the UK and Ireland from 13 October 2023.[20]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 43 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. 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."[21] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[22]
Year | Award / Festival | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | Sundance Film Festival | World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary | Smoke Sauna Sisterhood | Nominated | [23] |
World Cinema Documentary - Directing Award | Anna Hints | Won | |||
Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival | Next:Wave Award | Smoke Sauna Sisterhood | Nominated | [24] | |
Hong Kong International Film Festival | Documentary Competition - Firebird Award | Nominated | [25] | ||
San Francisco International Film Festival | Best Documentary Feature | Won | [26] | ||
Filmfest München | CineRebels Award | Nominated | [27] | ||
2023 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival | Outstanding Female-Led Feature Film | Won | [28] | ||
19th Zurich Film Festival | Documentary Competition | Nominated | [29] | ||
27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival | Best Baltic Film | Won | [30] | ||
European Film Awards | Best Documentary | Won | [31] | ||
IDA Documentary Awards | Best Cinematography | Ants Tammik | Won | [32] | |
Best Writing | Anna Hints | Nominated | [33] |