Hot Docs

A delicate, poetic, and soulful portrayal of masculinity, Steam of Life reveals that men are most likely to expose their inner-most emotions, not when they’re drunk at a bar, but when they’re naked in a sauna. Even, or perhaps especially, when that sauna is improvised out of an old camping trailer or a roadside phone booth. In the warm glow of rusty stoves and steaming stones, numerous men share touching stories of love, death, birth, and friendship, and in the process cleanse themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. Their revealing confessions argue that when we are at our most natural and vulnerable, we are also at our most human. Punctuated by surprising and lighthearted interludes and vast shots of nature that reflect the men’s newfound serenity and balance, Steam of Life is an exceptionally intimate and reflective film about the healing catharsis of conversation.

Media Coverage

National Post (Capsule Review)