In the tradition of bitter love stories dealing with acceptance, exclusion, and bigotry within minorities, such as Ana Kokkinos’s Head On, Merchant Ivory’s Maurice, and Stephen Frears’s My Beautiful Laundrette, comes Sauna, written by director Mathias Broe and William Lippert. Magnus Juhl Andersen plays Johan, a young gay man in Copenhagen whose life comprises working and cruising. His relationships with friends are the only thing of substance in a life vacant of real or deeply emotional connections.
This, of course, alters when Johan happens to meet William (Nina Rask), a transgender man exploring his new identity. Johan and William form an immediate connection, though William is slightly apprehensive as he is pre-op and is struggling to maintain a consistent hormone treatment to be officially classified as the gender he identifies as. The couple suffers a major speed bump after Johan takes William to Adonis, the sauna and men’s club he where he works. A series of dimly lit, steam-filled rooms filled with an Eyes Wide Shut-style plethora of sexual delights follows. But just as the couple find a quiet corner to allow the emotions for each other to bubble over, Johan’s employer kicks them out of the club because they discovered William is trans, and therefore not welcome. Johan argues against the judgment, but William simply leaves, vanishing into the night.
“…Johan’s employer kicks them out of the club because they discovered William is trans…”
Sauna jumps ahead to the couple reconnecting after William’s operation. Their bond deepens as they share and bear their souls to each other. Yet, unbeknownst to William, Johan has stolen from the men’s club in order to fund his new love’s transition. And for a time, everything seems fine. Johan and William explore each other and slowly develop a comfort in being out and about together. But beneath this, Johan is fired from his job, evicted from his dwelling, and is living with William in his dormitory room.
Honeymoon periods are sweet but fleeting, and soon identity politics and social expectations weigh heavily on the couple as William reveals the exclusion from his family for his choices and Johan grates against his rejection from the gay community for taking a transgender man as a partner. All things physical and psychological contribute to the conflict between the lovers. They fight against being ripped apart just to pander to the checklists within their respective communities, which scream to the heavens for equality and acceptance, yet deny and exclude within their own sphere of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Sauna is a real love story. Not the artifice that some Hollywood romance might present. Real love is messy, complicated, and not always easily pieced back together or healed if fractured or broken. The truth is, no matter how you identify, there is a universal truth to be found both in this and the tagline of Chasing Amy: “sex is easy, love is hard.”
"…a real love story."
