Sauna

A film based on a simple situation: several men talk in the sauna. This simplicity of action places the greatest demands on the quality of the dialogues and the actors, and Bajon has obviously complied with these demands. Sauna can be regarded as a contemporary comedy and is set in a Finnish sauna in the hotel of the Ministry of Education in Helsinki. The topics of conversation are typical of the eighties, the period when events took place throughout Europe leading to the demise of the socialist regimes east of the River Elbe.The largest group in the sauna is from Eastern Europe and share experiences and a language which make them completely incomprehensible for the American and Finn who are listening to them. They are academics, engineers and artists who come to Helsinki every year to hold lectures or to profit from a student grant, and who meet on the 'men's days' at the sauna. The two 'outsiders' think they are only able to talk about politics and that bring the American in the overheated sauna to the brink of a nervous breakdown and an attack of hysteria. Conversations which are completely dominated by politics are a symptom of a psychiatric aberration in the opinion of the film-maker. This film is a protest against such dependence on politics.