Sauna

I had wanted to see Sauna a while back and since it is Finnish it took a little for it to show up on DVD. To be completely honest. I didnt get it. I really dont know what happened in this movie but I wish I did. As a photographer, the cinematography is awesome in every way, the colors and vividness of it all reminds me of "Defiance" and "The Village".Sauna takes place in 1595 at the end of the Russian/Swedish war, two Swedish brothers are traveling and plotting the new country borders on a map. The oldest brother has endured this 25 year war and its brutality, the youngest has not and is studying to be a geography professor when he returns. At some point they lock away a young girl and leave her to die, as they get further away from her and happen upon a small undocumented town, the youngest brother is haunted by this girl. In the town they find a big concrete "Sauna", where it is said one can "Wash Your Sins". According to the official site (www.washyoursins.com) the movie is about "sins and repentance".

It is marketed as a horror movie, and some scenes are a bit scary/startling as well as tension filled. Unfortunately there is a lot lost in translation between the Finnish and English subtitles I believe, because when things start getting underway in the film things just stop making sense to me all together. Overall, the movie was beautifully shot and the scary things look awesome and are creepy but there might as well have been no subtitles because I cant even figure out the last half of the movie. Would have made a great photo exhibit of still images though.