SAUNA DAY

SAUNA DAY

13 Min | Anna Hints, Tushar Prakash | Estonia

SAUNA DAY invites you into the world of Southern Estonian men who go to the dark-intimate space of a smoke sauna after a hard day’s work. Beneath their tough exteriors lies a desire for connection, veiled in secrecy.

#tradition #masculinity #rituals #atmospheric
live action
fiction
Directors
Anna Hints & Tushar Prakash

Anna Hints is an Estonian film director with a background in the contemporary art scene and experimental music. Anna is deeply rooted in the distinct culture of South Estonia, yet for 5 years her second home has been India.

Anna studied literature, folklore and has a degree both in Photography and Film Directing. Anna’s debut short fiction Ice (2017), which received the Best Short Film award at the Estonian Film and TV Awards, has been screened at more than 95 film festivals and won 14 awards worldwide. Anna’s feature debut Smoke Sauna Sisterhood had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it competed in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and won the Directing Award at the World Cinema Documentary Competition. It was selected as the Estonian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards and won the award for Best Documentary at the 36th European Film Awards.

Tushar Prakash is an Indian filmmaker, who is a graduate of the National Polish Film School in Lodz. Since 2020 he has been living in Estonia.

His graduation film Jestem OK won the Best Student Fiction Film and The Polish Film Society Award For Artistic Courage & Bravery at the Lodzia Po Wiśle student film festival in Warsaw. The film also won the Honorable Mention at the Koszalin Film Festival in Poland. He co-directed The Karma Killings, a feature documentary on the infamous Nithari serial killings, the first Indian documentary to be acquired by NETFLIX. He was also the editor for the Indian short film Circus directed by Tariq Vasudeva, the film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival 2018. His feature fiction film in development has participated at the Produire Au Sud workshop in France and La Fabrique Des Cinémas Du Monde at the Cannes Film Festival where it was mentored by Claire Dennis. He is amongst the first Indian alumni of EAVE.

Screenings
Screenings
PLAYGROUND Buenos Aires
26th of August 2025 | 20:00
Casona de Humahuaca, Humahuaca 3508, Almagro

Cultural center

MERRY shnit
Info
Category:

MERRY shnit | INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, Program 2025