17 August 2025
(Screening of the movie. PHOTOS: America House Odesa)
The documentary Sanatorium by Irish director Gar O'Rourke, co-produced by Ukraine, Ireland and France, premiered in Odesa as part of the PORUCH contemporary culture festival.
The film tells the story of the Kuyalnyk sanatorium in Odesa.
The screening was held in partnership with America House Odesa, and was followed by a Q&A with the team members and the director, who joined online. "Sanatorium is Gar O'Rourke's debut feature film. The world premiere took place as part of the competition program of the 22nd Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, and in June 2025, the film became the opening film of the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
Gar O'Rourke is an Irish documentary filmmaker who has won a number of prestigious awards. In his debut feature film Sanatorium, he tells the stories of the employees and visitors of a Soviet-style health resort in war-torn southern Ukraine.
"Kuyalnyk was one of the first sanatoriums in the world to use mud therapy. In the summer of 2018, it celebrated its 185th anniversary. Today, the sanatorium has a clinic with a gym for exercise therapy, a brine pool, a massage room, physiotherapy and other treatment rooms. Mud therapy is available all year round.
In February 2024, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office notified the state registrar of suspicion of unauthorized changes to information processed in automated systems regarding the property of the Kuyalnyk resort. In 2019, the state registrar registered the ownership of the property of the association of sanatorium and resort facilities at the resort to a private enterprise without any legal grounds. Earlier, the court upheld the claim of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office and returned the property complex at the Kuyalnyk resort with an area of more than 100,000 square meters to state ownership.
Кирило Бойко