17/09/2010

Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen’s Steam of Life is the first documentary ever to represent Finland in the Academy Awards nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film is also in the race for the prestigious Nordic Council Film Prize 2010.

Steam of Life is a subtle and emotional portrayal of naked Finnish men who cleanse themselves both mentally and physically in the intimacy of saunas. Berghäll and Hotakainen, both 33, not only wrote and directed the film together, they also shared the technical – and physical – challenges of filming in saunas across Finland, under obviously exceptional conditions.

Between April and November, the film will have travelled to 19 festivals, according to Berghäll, who also produced the film for his company Oktober OY, run with Hotakainen. It has won numerous awards (such as top prize at Israel’s DocAviv and the Interreligious Jury Prize at Nyon’s Visions du Réel) and received rave reviews from the international press.

Released in Finland last March, the film is the sixth most popular Finnish film of the year, an exceptional result for a documentary film. Steam of Life is currently playing in Sweden (Folkets Bio) and it will open in Norway and Poland in January. Film Transit International handles world sales.

After Steam of Life, which is all about men, Berghäll said he is currently writing the script for a documentary film “all about women”. Last year’s Finnish candidate in the Oscars’ race was Klaus Härö’s Letters to Father Jacob [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The Oscars nominations will be announced on January 25 in Los Angeles and the final Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood will take place on February 27.