Sauna is a Finnish horror film that plays on Finnish Suana culture, where Saunas are used to wash away your sins, cleansing both body and soul. Director AJ Annila however doesn’t seem to believe in forgiveness.
After 25 years of fighting the Russians, a Finnish man in reunited with his younger brother as they join two Russians as part of the border-recognition treaty detachment, charting out a new boundary between the two countries.
The older brother has used the war to legitimise the brutal killing of innocent people, presumably the old and very young being amongst his victims. He carries all seventy-three of then in his head, a constant reminder of his past sins.
When the brothers seek food and lodging with a farmer and his daughter at the stat of the journey we discover that the brothers sins might go deeper than just killing. When the two leave the following morning, we don’t know what has happened to the farmer, but we discover that the daughter has been locked away in the basement and left to die.
Whilst traversing a large swamp, the younger brother has visions of the now faceless girl following him, and when ever he looks at his compass, can’t get a true reading – they are, it would seem, lost.
Stumbling on through the swamp they find a strange village not located on their maps, with a flooded Sauna in its centre and a population of seventy-three people.
On reflection, it seems like the brothers may have crossed over to the spiritual realm, and the strange occupants of the village are in-fact the victims of the older brothers blood lust.
The younger brother decides to investigate the Sauna, but will he find salvation for his brother and himself, or will there only be condemnation?
Sauna is a spellbinding journey, which is also very confusing. It’s stunningly filmed, with amazing attention to detail, and the actors seem to fill their roles well. The story itself is very dark – at one point one of the characters commenting of the need to be careful, as darkness doesn’t reflect light, it absorbs it.
Sauna draws on a lot of religious imagery and ideas, but in the end doesn’t tell you what you should think or feel.
Whilst it isn’t the easiest film to understand, it is well worth the effort to watch. It is engaging and phenomenally beautiful (in a strange and dark way), and it will leave you with many questions to ponder and may well deserve repeated viewings as you try to peal back the layers and discover just what is going on. Reviewed by: Jonathan Read Rating: [M] Violence, offensive language and nudity. Release date: November 12th, 2009 Stars: Ville Virtanen, Tommi Eronen Length (Minutes): 85 Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Languages: Finnish Subtitles: English Director: ANNILA, AJ Studio: Madman Asylum
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