Within the sheltered confines of a traditional smoke sauna deep in an Estonian forest, groups of women gather to cleanse themselves in both body and soul. On and off through the seasons, this intimate locale becomes a space for female togetherness, giving the women room not just to indulge in traditional sauna-based rituals (included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list), but also to share intensely personal hurts and longings, joys and pains. In Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, a hotbox becomes a place of healing. A deserving winner of the directing award in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary category, filmmaker Anna Hints boldly combines an intimate non-fiction approach with sensuous lyrical expressionism, balancing the disarming frankness of her subjects’ conversations with ravishing, lushly photographed textures of fire, wood, steam, smoke, and flesh. Less an act of individual portraiture than a kind of collective diary, or even an exorcism of experience, the film is a moving tribute to female resilience and community.
Estonia/France/Iceland
2023
Spectrum
In Estonian, Seto and Võro with English subtitles
Discussions of Sexual Violence, Sexual Discrimination
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Marianne Ostrat
Screenwriter
Anna Hints
Cinematography
Ants Tammik
Editor
Hendrik Mägar, Tushar Prakash, Qutaiba Barhamji, Martin Männik, Anna Hints
Director
Anna Hints
Anna Hints is an Estonian film director with a background in contemporary art and experimental folk music. Anna has deep roots in the distinct culture of South Estonia. As an active dumpster diver, Anna’s short documentary For Tomorrow Paradise Arrives initiated public discussion and growth of new grassroot movements against food waste in Estonia. Anna’s first feature length film Smoke Sauna Sisterhood premiered at the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Competition in January 2023 and received the Directing Award.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Antonia's Line
This month's Pantheon selection spotlights the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Dutch feminist filmmaker Marleen Gorris, and her charming, vibrant tale of an emancipated farmer who refuses to conform.
Oscars® Party 2026
Experience the Academy Awards in style at the VIFF Centre! Watch the ceremony live on the big screen with a red carpet, a fully licensed bar and live hosts.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
One of only a handful of live action children's films to capture the imaginations of generations, E.T. has a luminous warmth; it's a suburban symphony of emotion, and it's fascinating to revisit it in the light of The Fabelmans.
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.