Sanatorium

In times of war, the Kuyalnik Sanatorium in Odessa, southern Ukraine, is called upon to treat more than creaking joints and nutritional deficiencies. The staff — including a gargantuan all-purpose janitor, an tireless entertainer, and a doctor specialised in just about everything from ophthalmology to podiatry — do their best to keep smiling, even as their imposing brutalist building falls apart and the air raid sirens go off. As for the guests, among whom there is also no lack of memorable characters, they do their best to enjoy a few days of relaxation in pastel-coloured rooms, treatments with delightfully anachronistic Soviet-era machines, basking in the sun and the beaches of the Black Sea. All this, despite the smoke columns rising on the horizon, a reminder of how close the front line lies.
If this extraordinary humanity can smile and make us smile in the midst of war, we can't wait to find out what they'll be capable of when they finally return to enjoy their thermal mud baths, aquagym, karaoke and ping-pong tournaments in well-deserved peace.

Sergio Fant

Sanatorium, 2025