SAUNA

Late 1500s: the war between Russia and Sweden is now coming to an end. To redefine the borders of the two countries at the end of the conflict, two brothers from the Scandinavian faction are sent to the most remote places until they reach a village whose existence they did not know. From that moment on, mysterious and unsettling events begin to occur around the village's Sauna, perhaps linked to some deeds of the two brothers that should remain secret. Is Scandinavia the new talent generator of the Old Continent in the field of horror? The question is legitimate, considering the good number of quality films coming from the northern peninsula, among "Dead Snow", "Skjult" and the acclaimed "Let Me In". Soon (hopefully) "Rejkiavyk Whale Watching Massacre" and "Stone's War" will arrive (go enjoy the trailers and get well soon) to increase the dose, but in the meantime, leading these decidedly succulent releases, we find "Sauna" by the Finnish Antti Jussi-Annila, a true masterpiece of auteur horror, as beautiful as it is difficult to digest. But for once, we are not referring to blood and guts on the walls, to psychopathic killers chasing half-naked maidens and even less to sadists who kill crazy boys with the law of retribution: here we are talking about a difficult-to-digest film because we are in the presence of a complex, stratified, deep, and intense work, which sets aside violence for a much more metaphysical-philosophical approach. "Sauna" is a more unique than rare film in its refusal of pre-established schemes and avoidance of categorizations in well-specific genres and, along with a few others ("Antichrist" or "Martyrs"), it stands as the leader of a new, more conceptual horror (and auteur, of course) that, if exploited properly, could give a lot to our favorite genre, provided that the public is aware of what they are getting into. In these cases, you need to keep your brain well turned on, you need to pay attention to the details, you need to ask questions and look for the answers yourself, because the very prepared Antti Jussi-Annila leaves nothing to chance but refuses to treat the viewer as a retarded child, and wants it to be him who ties the threads of the discourse once the credits roll. Here, then, in this jewel of a film, the director (also screenwriter) stimulates our senses and our consciousness by mixing Christianity (sin/guilt/redemption) with Scandinavian, particularly Finnish, traditions linked to the place of the Sauna. To be further understood, in fact, Jussi-Annila's film requires a minimum study of Nordic traditions: for the record, for example, the Sauna was considered in antiquity akin to a Church, a sacred place where one went to give birth, where the bodies of the dead were purified, and where one also went to heal. The sauna, moreover, has always been the first construction of a group of people when they moved. And furthermore, water is the passage to the realm of the dead. All notions that the viewer should keep in mind while watching the film, but those who do not have the opportunity should not despair, after all, we are facing a work that, playing with ambiguity and hermetism, is by force of things open to multiple interpretations. "Sauna" is an intriguing horror, with sometimes Lynchian influences, that works at a subliminal level through suggestions, images, sounds, words, and never through the tripe festival: this could disappoint many and indeed we are in the presence of a work undoubtedly courageous in its desire to indicate a new path to be discovered, a path that perhaps a few intrepid directors will grasp, but that someone, for the good of our favorite genre, must absolutely grasp. The pace is slow, stretched, but the tension is continuous and creeping, and you never get bored, fascinated by an elegant (but never self-celebratory) direction and by a leaden photography that immerses the viewer in a place apparently (?) out of time and space. A sensation amplified precisely by the building of the Sauna, so "alien" to the surrounding environment, almost a tear in a dimension forbidden to man, or internal to himself. The climax reaches its peak in the final scene, a masterpiece within the masterpiece, with a disruptive visual impact and monstrously chilling, a worthy epitaph for a magniloquent and complicated work, but that fully rewards the time spent watching and understanding it. Honorable mention for the actors who play the two brothers, both intense and perfectly immersed in their roles, and to a technical department (hat tip also to the editing) that has nothing to envy (but much to teach) to productions with much higher budgets. Among the "musts" of recent years, "Sauna" deserves a prominent position, being one of the most "important" horrors released post-2000, not only because it introduces us to an undeniably capable director, not only because it is an original and fascinating work, but also because it demonstrates that in the hands of experienced and courageous people, horror cinema can give a lot and explore depths still unexplored and therefore all to be discovered. Let's hope that many new recruits arm themselves with pen and notepad and start taking notes. Enter the Sauna too, if you have the courage.