The Finnish aren't known for their horror movies, and now I know why. The period piece, Sauna, which revolves around two brothers in 1575 who are assigned to set the new borders between recently warring Sweden and Russia is certainly a visual treat... but short on story.
Sauna takes on us a journey of what exactly it means to 'redeem' ones self, and if true redemption can even be achieved. One poster tagged it as the unsettling area between paganism and Christianity. While I hoped there would be a true exploration of what I perceived to be a supernatural tale about sin vs redemption, what I got was a real quick period piece about a Japanese style ghost.
The visually stunning film does a wonderful job of conveying a very unsettling landscape... one that does seem devoid of any type of "god", and the main character of Eerik is wonderfully portrayed by Ville Virtanen. But overall the film seemed too short, lacked closure, and the obvious ending that stresses 'open to interpretation' comes off more like 'closed to thought.' Even though it runs at 84 minutes, and with subtitles... the overall effect is impressive to a degree. But the overall absence of expository dialog in the last 20 minutes leaves one almost baffled.
I expect good things from the director... Antti-Jussi Annila. And while Sauna is a step in the right direction of good movie-making, it trips over it's subject matter at the "finnish" line.
Sauna takes on us a journey of what exactly it means to 'redeem' ones self, and if true redemption can even be achieved. One poster tagged it as the unsettling area between paganism and Christianity. While I hoped there would be a true exploration of what I perceived to be a supernatural tale about sin vs redemption, what I got was a real quick period piece about a Japanese style ghost.
The visually stunning film does a wonderful job of conveying a very unsettling landscape... one that does seem devoid of any type of "god", and the main character of Eerik is wonderfully portrayed by Ville Virtanen. But overall the film seemed too short, lacked closure, and the obvious ending that stresses 'open to interpretation' comes off more like 'closed to thought.' Even though it runs at 84 minutes, and with subtitles... the overall effect is impressive to a degree. But the overall absence of expository dialog in the last 20 minutes leaves one almost baffled.
I expect good things from the director... Antti-Jussi Annila. And while Sauna is a step in the right direction of good movie-making, it trips over it's subject matter at the "finnish" line.