TIFF 2024: Sauna Day | Interview of Anna Hints & Tushar Prakash

Debuting at the 77th Cannes Film Festival last May during the 63rd Critics’ Week, Sauna Day landed at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Sauna Day, or Sannapäiv, is the latest creation from the talented Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints, in collaboration with New Delhi-born Tushar Prakash. Their artistic duo has already proven its worth with Anna Hints’ previous film, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, edited by Tushar Prakash, which captivated the festival circuit last year following a sensational debut in Park City, Utah.

The 13-minute fiction short immerses the viewer in the confined intimacy of a traditional Estonian sauna. With almost no dialogue, the humidity, the dampness, and the heat seem palpable. Sweat beads on bodies under pressure, on bodies consenting to a radical physical experience imagined to be healing for the soul. With grace, modesty, and skill, Anna Hints and Tushar Prakash orchestrate the merging of the viewer’s extraordinary experience with the ordinary reality of their subjects.

For the second time in 2024, after our interview during the presentation of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood at the 2024 Trieste Film Festival, we had the pleasure of speaking with Anna Hints, this time joined by her co-director, Tushar Prakash.

Mehdi Balamissa: You collaborated on the remarkable Smoke Sauna Sisterhood with distinct roles. Now, you co-direct Sauna Day. What were the motivations and approaches of each one of you to this film?

Anna Hints: I was born into the smoke sauna culture, and the space of the smoke sauna continues to inspire me as a sort of dark, cosmic canvas to explore human connection and condition. In Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, the focus is in the intimate talks that are shared within the sisterhood. In Sauna Day, the focus is in the unsaid intimacy that is not shared through words. As I am in a creative journey as an author and can only create art that deeply resonates within me, then of course all my films will have dialogue and intertextuality between them. I view space as a tool for artistic exploration; two films can share the same setting yet differ in style, approach, and themes. Both Sauna Day and Smoke Sauna Sisterhood are born from my experience with the smoke sauna culture and deep connection with the indigenous Võro and Seto cultures from South-East Estonia, where my roots are. I am sure more films will come from that setting also in future.

Tushar Prakash: With this film, we are looking into the fragility of perceived masculinity. The problem is in the patriarchal mindset that goes through generations and has taught men to suppress their emotions, so they struggle to express their pain, suffering, isolation, troubles and feelings through language. In our minds, the characters in this film have never openly discussed their emotions; instead, they rely on unspoken actions to communicate their feelings. The film also explores code-switching, how we participate in society by conforming to gender roles, and how we communicate with someone in a more individual language. When the characters speak, they fulfill their gender roles; however, when they really do “speak” to each other, then it is through body language, gestures, and glances, breaking gender expectations.

Mehdi Balamissa: When watching Sauna Day, we naturally have Smoke Sauna Sisterhood in mind and its incredible documentary work. One might think that the research for creating Sauna Day was quite similar. To what extent did you collaborate with the actors in the film?

Anna and Tushar: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood taught us the technical challenges to expect while shooting in a hot dark smoke sauna, but also showed us the cinematic rewards that could be achieved in that space. We had a mix of actors and non-actors, and we specifically wanted to work with the men from the community where we were shooting. To help this group bond and blur the lines between actors and non-actors, we engaged them in traditional mutual physical work. This was important because going to the smoke sauna after a hard day’s work to clean oneself is a genuine aspect of the tradition we wanted to capture. This preparation was key to dissolving the boundaries of performance and making the actors feel like a real part of the community. We spent several days together, only to shoot the 13 minutes that made it into the film on the last day, almost in one take. This approach is focusing on the process, creating energy to capture into the film. The important part in this kind of approach is selecting the right people to work with—those who understand and support our vision. We are incredibly fortunate with our team, headed by producers Johanna Maria Paulson and Evelin Penttilä, who trusted us completely. This trust is the most valuable asset in filmmaking, allowing us to create an environment where everyone hopefully film magic can happen.

Mehdi Balamissa: Can you describe what the camera is seeking to capture with such intensity and eroticism during the scene where the men are whipping each other inside the sauna?

Anna and Tushar: This film is like a poem, revolving around a whisking scene that serves as a ritual of communication and bonding between two individuals. This whisking ritual is a common practice in South Estonia. The challenge in cinema is to elevate this ritual into a silent language between the two men without explicitly pointing anything out to the viewer. We aim to leave it ambiguous, allowing viewers to find themselves in the ritual and interpret it in their own ways. Viewers have had varying discussions about the action; some see it as erotic, others view it as mundane, and some see it as a process of purification of desire. Additionally, we wanted the community to recognize this action as believable and authentic, not exaggerated. We are interested in how the language can turn into a physical action and be transferred to the viewer. That is what fascinates us in the communication, what is said, what is not said and how interpretation is formed in each viewer’s head.

Mehdi Balamissa: My favorite scene in the film is when the men exit the sauna and head towards the lake, walking away from the camera through the tall grass. To me, it represents the completion of a rite, a movement, a passage, a transformation. Can the sauna experience be understood this way?

Anna Hints: Water is an important element in the smoke sauna rituals. Into the water we sing our prayers and wash our body and soul. Water symbolizes the transformative power we have inside us too. I remember how my granny used to say when we have traumas, everything freezes in us and we can find ourselves in deep dark winter where there are just ice fields, but it is so important to remember that the ice can flow again and traumas can be melted, we just need warmth and safety. In Sauna Day, being in water is being in the space where the restrictions of society are not defining us. It is a liminal space, and the whole smoke sauna experience can be interpreted in a way of a passage, ritual, transformation.

Tushar Prakash: The dip in the lake represents the middle ground between the inner space of the smoke sauna and the outer world where the men must resume performing their gender roles. We had submerged so deeply into the film experience that the boundaries had blurred to such an extent that even the smallest gestures, movements, and looks played on the themes we were exploring. The smoke sauna experience between the two men is clearly a ritual they have performed many times. This ritual manifests through verbal silence, yet the codes of the ritual are deeply ingrained within the bodies of the men.

Mehdi Balamissa: What can we wish for each of you in terms of your future cinematic experiments and careers?

Anna Hints: Every project means jumping into the unknown. I believe it is very important for each artist to find their methods on how to stay true to their voice and not conform themselves to the pressure coming from outside. Right now there is a lot of pressure to me with: “Anna, what do you do next?” I need to totally let that pressure off, not think of any festivals or awards. How to stay sensitive, alert and not scared of failing in your own or someone else’s eyes is crucial for me. For that I need a lot of time in nature where I can be grounded and elevated at the same time and step into the creative forest with no expectations on myself. Only then uncompromising artistic freedom can be born and that is only possible with people around who trust your process. In art I firmly believe that 1+1 = 3.

Tushar Prakash: Filmmaking can be such a lonely and grueling process; it’s beautiful to have someone with whom you can create and share the burden of making a movie. Just as the flora and fauna are enriched when two geological and geographical regions meet, so too is the creativity when diverse personalities come together and learn from each other. Our roles can change in different films, but we want to continue creating together. I am an Indian filmmaker living in Estonia, trying to build a life here. Living in Europe has opened up many opportunities for me; however, I dearly miss India. I feel like a swimmer in the middle of two beaches: I have left one beach and have not yet reached the other, with the possibility that I might float in this limbo forever. The only way for me to deal with this is to pursue it in my cinema. I am on a journey to investigate my Indian identity and heritage through the lens of Europe, and to connect these two cultures in my films.

Sauna Day is an Estonia-based Stellar Film production. International sales are handled by renowned short film distributor Salaud Morisset. We also wish to acknowledge the one and only Mirjam Wiekenkamp (NOISE Film & TV), for facilitating this interview.

Explore our coverage of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival here.