CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, kicked off on Friday with a mix of docs from around the globe about a broad selection of topics in line with the fest’s reputation among attendees. A colossal ex-Soviet wellness center in Odesa, Ukraine is one of the locations and topics getting the Copenhagen spotlight this year, thanks to Sanatorium, the new observational doc from Irish filmmaker Gar O’Rourke (Kachalka).
It world premieres at Copenhagen on Monday, with additional screenings over the course of the following days.
“Both patients and staff search for health, happiness, and love while the [Russia-started] war echoes through the lime green corridors” of Kuyalnyk Sanatorium, notes a film synopsis. “Every summer, people of all ages arrive in their thousands at a huge ex-Soviet treatment center in Odesa on the southern coast of Ukraine. A time capsule from the ’70s, built in the brutalist style of the era, it still offers therapeutic treatments from the glory days of the Soviet Union. The main attraction is the mysterious mud which is believed to cure infertility, chronic ailments, and a myriad of other health problems.”
But beyond the physical health goals, many guests are really searching for happiness and love above all else, Sanatorium shows as O’Rourke and the camera of cinematographer Denys Melnyk follow them to tell their stories. As such, the doc is also a declaration of love 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 short doc Kachalka, described as “a journey into the heart of what is widely considered the world’s most hardcore gym – Kyiv’s enormous open-air ‘Kachalka’ gym.” Recalls the filmmaker: “It was about this incredible, bizarre outdoor gym in the middle of Kyiv. Ukrainians used to go there to work out. And it was around that time I became really interested in what you might call Ukraine’s very unique approach and philosophy towards health and well-being. They have a unique sensibility towards this, I feel. And then a Ukrainian friend introduced 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-reflection and, in an abstract way, this idea of rebirth,” O’Rourke explains. In 2021, he first visited Kuyalnyk and, he tells THR, “I pretty much fell in love with the place after a week of mud baths, and hydro massages, electro massages, and salt pool therapies.”
He adds: “It wasn’t so much the treatments that I fell in love with. It was the atmosphere of this sanatorium. And it was really getting to know 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 invasion happened in February 2022, so that changed everything,” O’Rourke recalls. “For a long time, we thought this sanatorium would not open again, let alone us getting a chance to make a film there during a war. But in June of 2023, the sanatorium decided ‘we believe that Ukrainians need this place more than ever.’ Because it’s not just a place where people take a holiday and relax, 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 allow viewers to time travel, or “time warp,” as the director puts it, a bit.
“Within the cinematography of the film, the intention was to try and capture a sense of utopian atmosphere, and draw inspiration from the aesthetics of Soviet-era architecture,” he notes. “I also took some inspiration from Soviet cinema which influenced certain aspects of the style, such as the slow powerful zooms, the expansive wide locked-off shots, and the symmetry and aesthetic of some of our compositions.”
And he used Ukrainian music from the past. “The film has a really specific soundtrack. The music is very much of the era,” he tells 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, just to really dial in the atmosphere of this film and create something very specific.”
‘Sanatorium’
Courtesy of Venom Films
The ongoing war is not a focus of the doc but rears its ugly head like a pin threatening to burst the sanatorium bubble when the alarms go off. “I never set out to make a film about the war in Ukraine and never set out to make a war film,” O’Rourke tells THR. “But of course, the war is a fabric of every single person’s life who lives in Ukraine right now, and I felt that it would be maybe more powerful and more appropriate to keep the war always on the periphy, always just outside the walls of the sanatorium, because it’s always there. Because 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 direct strike or anything like that, and I hope it never does.”
He also lauds and thanks his Ukrainian team for their hard work, skill, and their spirit. “They’re just really happy that there can be a film,” O’Rourke says. “There are many important stories that need to be told during this war, and I suppose we hope ours is one of those.”
And he references such everyday parts of the film as conversations between family and friends and such unexpected portions as a disco scene. “There’s something powerful about seeing a person sing, dance, play, maybe forge a new friendship, have an argument with their friends. That’s what we all do,” O’Rourke concludes. “You’re reminded, in a very stark way, that these are just people trying to get on with their lives. Life goes on, even with the war. Life has to go on. And there’s something very poignant and powerful about being able to relate to someone that way rather than [the more common news images showing] people whose house is completely destroyed.”
Sanatorium will air in the U.K. on the BBC as part of its Storyville doc strand later this year, and O’Rourke hopes it will also be seen in many more countries beyond that.
The creative is also already gearing up for his next observational doc, which will tackle overtourism and will be called The Siege of Paradise. “The logline is: The most beautiful place in the world becomes an epicenter for overtourism when less than 4,000 Italian locals are invaded by more than 4 million tourists,” O’Rourke tells THR. “
