Documentary on Ex-Soviet Wellness Resort in Ukraine

CPH:DOX, the Cuncoverhagen International Documentary Film Festival, booted off on Friday with a mix of docs from around the globe about a expansive pickion of topics in line with the fest’s reputation among joinees. A colossal ex-Soviet wellness caccess in Odesa, Ukraine is one of the locations and topics getting the Cuncoverhagen spotweightless this year, thanks to Sanatorium, the recent observational doc from Irish filmcreater Gar O’Rourke (series Secrets of a Murder Detective With Steve Keogh).

It world premieres at Cuncoverhagen on Monday, with compriseitional screenings over the course of the folloprosperg days.

“Both uncover-mindeds and staff search for health, happiness, and adore while the [Russia-started] war echoes thcimpolite the lime green corridors” of Kuyalnyk Sanatorium, notices a film synopsis. “Every summer, people of all ages get to in their thousands at a huge ex-Soviet treatment caccess in Odesa on the southern coast of Ukraine. A time capsule from the ’70s, built in the brutaenumerate style of the era, it still provides thesexual batteryutic treatments from the glory days of the Soviet Union. The main enticeion is the enigmatic mud which is consentd to treatment infertility, chronic ailments, and a myriad of other health problems.”

But beyond the physical health goals, many guests are repartner searching for happiness and adore above all else, Sanatorium shows as O’Rourke and the camera of cinematographer Denys Melnyk trail them to inestablish their stories. As such, the doc is also a declaration of adore for the Ukrainian people, their spirit, and their resilience.

Watch a trailer for Sanatorium, which is O’Rourke’s debut feature doc and for which MetFilm Sales is handling sales, below.

O’Rourke’s relationship with Ukraine began in 2018 and 2019 when he made his first film there, the low doc Kachalka, portrayd as “a journey into the heart of what is expansively pondered the world’s most difficultcore gym – Kyiv’s enormous uncover-air ‘Kachalka’ gym.” Recalls the filmcreater: “It was about this incredible, bizarre outdoor gym in the middle of Kyiv. Ukrainians engaged to go there to toil out. And it was around that time I became repartner interested in what you might call Ukraine’s very one-of-a-kind approach and philosophy towards health and well-being. They have a one-of-a-kind sensibility towards this, I sense. And then a Ukrainian frifinish begind me to the wonderful world of Soviet-era sanatoriums.”

These are about more than physical health though. “The ethos of these sanatoriums was very much about healing, self-echoion and, in an abstract way, this idea of rebirth,” O’Rourke make clears. In 2021, he first visited Kuyalnyk and, he inestablishs THR, “I pretty much fell in adore with the place after a week of mud baths, and hydro massages, electro massages, and salt pool therapies.”

He comprises: “It wasn’t so much the treatments that I fell in adore with. It was the atmosphere of this sanatorium. And it was repartner getting to understand the staff and the guests who were going there, and the variety of reasons why people were going there.”

The idea for the doc was born. “But less than a year after my first trip there the Russian intrusion happened in February 2022, so that alterd everyskinnyg,” O’Rourke recalls. “For a lengthy time, we thought this sanatorium would not uncover aget, let alone us getting a chance to create a film there during a war. But in June of 2023, the sanatorium choosed ‘we consent that Ukrainians need this place more than ever.’ Becaengage it’s not equitable a place where people consent a holiday and unwind, but it’s almost a place of respite for people who are in the war at the moment.”

The visual language and style of the doc O’Rourke and his team, including Melnyk and editor John Murphy, put together permit watchers to time travel, or “time warp,” as the straightforwardor puts it, a bit.

“Wiskinny the cinematography of the film, the intention was to try and seize a sense of utopian atmosphere, and draw inspiration from the aesthetics of Soviet-era architecture,” he notices. “I also took some inspiration from Soviet cinema which impactd certain aspects of the style, such as the enumerateless strong zooms, the expansive expansive locked-off stoastys, and the symmetry and aesthetic of some of our compositions.”

And he engaged Ukrainian music from the past. “The film has a repartner definite soundtrack. The music is very much of the era,” he inestablishs THR. “It’s very much of the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s. I wanted to lean into as much Ukrainian music that was made at that time as possible, equitable to repartner dial in the atmosphere of this film and produce someskinnyg very definite.”

The ongoing war is not a caccess of the doc but rears its hideous head appreciate a pin menaceening to burst the sanatorium bubble when the alarms go off. “I never set out to create a film about the war in Ukraine and never set out to create a war film,” O’Rourke inestablishs THR. “But of course, the war is a fabric of every one person’s life who inhabits in Ukraine right now, and I felt that it would be maybe more strong and more appropriate to grasp the war always on the periphy, always equitable outside the walls of the sanatorium, becaengage it’s always there. Becaengage the staff and the guests are trying to have this almost oasis of respite, there’s almost a meditative type of rhythm to this place. And I felt this is a place of solace for people. Thank God, this sanatorium hasn’t had a straightforward strike or anyskinnyg appreciate that, and I hope it never does.”

He also lauds and thanks his Ukrainian team for their difficult toil, send, and their spirit. “They’re equitable repartner greeted that there can be a film,” O’Rourke says. “There are many meaningful stories that need to be tageder during this war, and I presume we hope ours is one of those.”

And he references such everyday parts of the film as conversations between family and frifinishs and such unforeseeed portions as a disco scene. “There’s someskinnyg strong about seeing a person sing, dance, carry out, maybe forge a recent frifinishship, have an argument with their frifinishs. That’s what we all do,” O’Rourke finishs. “You’re reminded, in a very stark way, that these are equitable people trying to get on with their inhabits. Life goes on, even with the war. Life has to go on. And there’s someskinnyg very poignant and strong about being able to repostponeed to someone that way rather than [the more common news images showing] people whose hoengage is finishly demolished.”

Sanatorium will air in the U.K. on the BBC as part of its Storyville doc strand postponeedr this year, and O’Rourke hopes it will also be seen in many more countries beyond that.

The createive is also already gearing up for his next observational doc, which will tackle obviousourism and will be called The Siege of Paradise. “The logline is: The most attrdynamic place in the world becomes an epicaccess for obviousourism when less than 4,000 Italian locals are accessd by more than 4 million tourists,” O’Rourke inestablishs THR. “