Steam of Life (2010) Joonas Berghäll

I think the title alone lets you know this is a very spiritual documentary.  It opens with a couple of middle-aged people, completely naked, just enjoying the steam of the sauna and enjoying their own bodies.  I found it to be a beautiful opening sequence, specially since they feel so comfortable lying there, despite the camera filming them... and it got me thinking, we've grown so afraid of being naked, both physically and emotionally, that we've been missing out on simply enjoying our own bodies, our own feelings.

 

In general, I really liked this work.  Some of the men who tell their stories move you in so many different levels it's hard to get out the theater the same... these are people who are are completely broken, who feel defeated by life, who were too afraid and are now too alone..  "I wish she came, I've always cried alone, maybe this time we could cry together..." says one of them referring to his child. And yet, they're "us" in a very specific point of life, maybe even in the present time.

There were some scenes that I didn't like, because they felt forced, and strangely enough, overacted... I would've edited them, also the ending, which I think is cheesy and corny and completely unnecessary.  But other than that, I think it's a great documentary, a beautiful portrait of life as it is lived.