Sauna, the film not the temperature of the movie theater – Day 3 Gothenburg International Film Festival2

When I thumbed through the film festival catalog a few weeks back the film Sauna (2008) stood out amongst the films labeled as “Nordic”, appropriately like a “black thumb”.

Sauna is to a large extent technically amazing, I have come to expect no less from Nordic films, making great use of the feelings present in the natural rugged landscapes existent in Finland directly from its opening shot. The film’s subject material and metaphorical base is clearly laid out and described by its international title, “Filth”. Filth being the substance left behind when two things touch, in this case a border being carved out between Russia and Sweden, subsequently also described as the substance that holds things together. This clever yet simple “spiraling” metaphor is prevalent throughout all aspects of the film, permeating I am sure, the very celluloid it rests upon.

What I found to be so refreshing and fantastic about Sauna was the pure fact that its director, Antti-Jussi Annila, was willing to set a horror film like this in another time period than contemporary times. Not only that but replacing your typical screaming teenagers with that of village people, Russian soldiers, an academic and last but not least an utterly “bad ass” Finnish cavalry master, Erik Spore, who for me rivals the hardness of Marv from Sin City (2005). Throw in a touch of Japanese Kaidan and you’ve got yourself a party!

The film is also able to achieve a great deal of depth to its characters with very little telling of their stories, making it amazingly efficient in this area. This fact coupled with the pristine aesthetics of the film give a real stream lined feeling, smooth, hard and sharp like the edge of a sword.

As aforementioned all of this is refreshing because naturally enough I fail to understand the utter lack of imagination that is present in most films made today, when you have all of history to play with why not break from some genre based conventions and advance them instead. This is what Sauna successfully accomplishes, for once choosing imagination over predictability. Have a look at the trailer below,