Imagine a sauna in the middle of a snowy forest. The smell of steaming rocks, burnt embers, and warm cedar infiltrates your senses. If you’re like me, a feeling of ease immediately floods your body. A deep inhale, followed by an even deeper exhale dispels all feelings of negativity and stress. Here, secluded from the distractions of the outside world, the mind is free to roam.

In Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, which premiered in the World Cinema Documentary category at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Anna Hints dedicates her film to the sacred Estonian tradition of “savvusanna kombõ,” or, smoke saunas heated by a stove. For an hour and a half, we feel as if we are among a local group of women who frequent the sauna to cleanse their bodies and minds and connect with fellow feminine spirits.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood follows a very loose narrative structure. Forgoing a linear storyline, the film plays mostly like a fly-on-the-wall observational documentary. Nameless women of all ages and sizes gather at the sauna deep in the southern Estonia forest. There, they bare not only their bodies but their souls. Each with a story to tell, the women take turns leading vulnerable conversations around such topics as sex, relationships, cancer, shame, body image, and death. Much like a church confessional, the sauna acts as a safe space for complete honesty, no matter how complex the topic at hand is.

The film draws a poignant parallel between women and mother nature: both act as a resource for life. This sentiment is explored abstractly through their stories and in respectfully photographed images of their naked bodies. The environment of the film is also completely absorbing and stunning. Cinematographer Ants Tammik highlights the rich, organic colors of the Estonian outback from the depths of the damp sauna to the purity of the vast, snow-covered ground. Seeing these women set against this backdrop is nothing short of magical.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a striking celebration of natural beauty in all forms. For as vulnerable as these women seemingly are – naked and confessing to shortcomings or defeats – their strength is beyond measure. The film’s intimacy, combined with universally poignant themes, makes Smoke Sauna Sisterhood a rare, much-needed cinematic escape.

This review originally ran on January 29, 2023 during the Sundance Film Festival