SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD

Southern Estonia’s sauna culture is part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. But Anna Hint’s feature film debut is everything but a didactic culture doc, instead charging the seemingly archaic traditions with mythology. The filmmaker places herself right in the middle of a group of women telling each other their secrets in the half-light of a steaming sauna hut, going ice-dipping in the lake or smoking bacon over the fire. Winner of the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary at Sundance this year.