Join an icy plunge in Helsinki
Guide Kati Pankka.
On a virtual trip to Helsinki, Intrepid tour leader Kati Pankka will guide you around a private lakeside sauna. Pankka’s insights into traditional Finnish spa rituals include her taking an ice swim which, combined with sauna in winter, locals believe is a mood-booster with potential health benefits. The tour is part of a recent launch of 15 interactive virtual experiences by Intrepid’s Urban Adventures team, intended to help support its cohort of local guides during the pandemic. Sessions are conducted on Zoom in real time, many of them in the guide’s home. Other options include Mandala art and meditation in Delhi, and Polish pierogi-making with a Kraków cook.
Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s
drama
Atlantis
has won best film at the 37th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF), which is running as an online event December 10-20 due to Israel’s ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
Set in war-torn eastern Ukraine in the near future, the film revolves around a former soldier suffering from PTSD, who is trying to rebuild his life against the backdrop of his environmentally devastated homeland.
It is Vasyanovych’s third feature and Ukraine’s submission to the best international film category of the 2021 Oscars. Another Oscar hopeful, Jasmila Zbanic’s
Quo Vadis, Aida?, which is Bosnia’s entry, received a special mention.