“The highly competitive production support from Sundance Institute (18 projects selected from 1,100 applications) is, apart from a necessary funding, an amazing feedback that Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a relevant project that resonates and touches people across the Atlantic. With the support also comes the belonging to the Sundance creative community or the so-called Sundance family. Contacts with other Sundance grantees all over the world, seminars, advice, all this is both to Anna and me just as valuable and meaningful as the allocated financial support,” producer Marianne Ostrat from Alexandra Film told FNE.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is produced by Marianne Ostrat through Estonia’s Alexandra Film in coproduction with Juliette Cazanave and Pierre Jestaz through the French Kepler 22 Productions and Hlín Jóhannesdóttir through Ursus Parvus (Iceland).

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood looks at womanhood through the rituals of smoke sauna – an ancient tradition from Southeast Estonia that belongs to the UNESCO Representative Life of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the darkness of the smoke sauna, women share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences, wash off the shame trapped into their bodies and regain their strength.

Apart from the 33,600 EUR received from Sundance, the project has already received 47,000 EUR from the Estonian Film Institute and 28,000 EUR from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. Other supporters include the Tartu Film Fund and Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (France).

The film was shot from the autumn of 2019 to January 2021, and it is set to be released in the spring of 2022.

Production Information:

Producer:
Alexandra Film (Estonia)
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Coproducers:
Kepler 22 Productions (France)
Ursus Parvus (Iceland)

Credits:
Director: Anna Hints
DoP: Ants Tammik
Editor: Qutaiba Barhamji
Sound recordist: Tanel Kadalipp
Composer: Edvard Egilsson