There is something ever so slightly Martin Parr-like about this documentary, filmed inside a shabby rundown health resort near Odesa, in Ukraine. It’s not the colour palette, which is Soviet-era pale beige, but the images of holidaymakers: elderly men strutting about in thongs and playing ping pong in their vests; retirees of both sexes glad-ragged at the disco. Like Parr’s photos, the images are funny but not unkind; everyone retains their dignity. The director is Irish film-maker Gar O’Rourke, who planned Sanatorium before the war, but filmed it after Russia invaded Ukraine, which adds a layer of melancholy to the guests’ search for health and happiness.
The huge Kuyalnik sanatorium is a time warp with its brutalist architecture and institutional interiors. Back in its glory days, people must have come here in their thousands. Now, the place is a little tired: paint peeling off the walls, the ceilings stained by leaks. The health treatments too have a retro feel: mud wraps and electro massage machines. One guest is Natalia, who has brought her single 40-ish son Andriy, hoping to find him a wife. That doesn’t look promising since most of the other guests look old enough to have visited the sanatorium back in the day. Mother and son give the film a lovely moment slow dancing together to George Michael’s Careless Whisper at the disco. Other stories emerge: one woman’s husband was killed on the frontline; a younger guest is a soldier recovering from injuries sustained on the frontline. Another woman is here for help with fertility.
The place is run by the Tony Soprano of hospitality, Dmitriy, a great wardrobe of man who walks around shouting at staff. He is under pressure: the Russians are shelling Odesa and the air raid sirens are going off, visitor numbers are down, guests are glued to their phones, checking the news and apps monitoring drones and missiles. Their resilience is heroic, and there is a very moving scene near the end during a recital of the national anthem; so many faces with tears, each registering a loss or struggle.
Sanatorium is in UK and Irish cinemas from 5 September.