Sanatorium (15)
Directed by Gar O’Rourke
★★★★

IRISH director Gar O’Rourke’s debut feature provides a unique perspective on Ukrainian life as it follows the guests and staff at a Soviet-era health resort in Odessa in southern Ukraine over the summer season. 

Despite the war raging on nearby, the Kuyalnik Sanatorium continues to provide mud treatments and electro-therapies to help with fertility, back problems and a whole host of other health issues. 

Watching residents take part in karaoke, aqua aerobics, chess games and then bathe and roll in the mud in the estuary, in the distance you see smoke billowing from explosions. 

It is like going back in time to the 1970s as the sanatorium’s imposing Brutalist architecture personifies that era and both the decor and the equipment being used seem very dated. 

The film focuses on a number of guests, including a mother and her 40-year-old single son who are the stars of this documentary. There is also a war veteran undergoing rehabilitation from the injuries he sustained in action, a woman seeking fertility treatment and another who is grieving the loss of her husband who died on the front line.  While they undergo treatments many are also searching for love and happiness.

It is one of the most surprising documentaries of the year which is both funny and moving. The mother and son provide most of the light relief as she is desperate to see him married hoping he will find a prospective wife there. She has high hopes at the upcoming disco which proves hysterical as most of the female guests are of a certain age.  

At its height the resort catered for 270 people, but now they are reduced to a mere 30, due in part to the war outside that never penetrates its walls. The conflict only crops up in distant air raid alarms and blasts, and in the casual conversation of the resort’s manager, discussing overnight attacks near his home. 

The film focuses on healing and the power of community. It also gives you an insight into the Ukrainian soul and Ukrainian resilience. As the sanatorium celebrates the 32nd anniversary of the country’s independence staff and clients stand united singing the national anthem overwhelmed by emotion in a terribly poignant scene.   

Selected as Ireland’s official entry for Best International Film at next year’s Oscars this is a gem and not to be missed.

In cinemas September 5