An intimate, sensual portrait by directors Anna Hints & Tushar Prakash of a group of men in Southern Estonia enjoying a sauna after work

“Make it sizzle,” a gruff, stocky older man says at the beginning of this 13-minute film. He was talking about the sauna, of course. But he might as well have been talking about something else.

Beneath the chitchat between the men — about fixing roofs, home improvement, general pleasantries — is a curious frisson. A kind of tension, as if embodying the kinetic energy between them, and wafting slowly out of the sauna’s brazier.

The camera pans slowly over the men’s faces — beads of sweat slowly forming, then dripping; and then, on to the next. There’s also a kind of serenity as well; an expectant peace, as if reflecting the ethereal glow of the northern summer and its long days.

Soon, only two men are left, Jaak & Hillar. The latter strikes the former’s skin with a nettle whisk (a bundle of branches, typically of birch, tied together with twine; and with leaves still attached — often called a viht). At first he beats it gently, almost imperceptibly. Then the motion increases in tempo and gusto. Until finally, it reaches almost a frenetic pace.

The climax — just as in real life — is left out, of course. We see the two men bathing — really more cooling off — in a pond; the eyes, looking toward the sky. Their bodies enveloped in the refreshing summer swirls. We see them also drying off; wryly, we hear Jaak’s wife (or is it his mother?) calling out to him, asking him to hurry.

We hear also the two men calling out the names of their companions with great ceremony: Priit, Tarmo, Ivan, Heino — as if there’s symbolic meaning to them. Perhaps there is. As they use the towel to finish, we hear wryly the threat — from the other side of the door — that if they do not come out right away, the nettle whisk would be used. Little did she know, of course, that it has been used already.

S.F.