British Pathe

Southgate, London.

M/S of a birch tree, a cutter reaches up and snips off a branch. M/S of a garden, the man with the cutter is Peter Hilgeland, he picks up the fallen branch and walks off.

M/S of Peter's father Helmut Hilgeland in shorts surrounded by three young women dressed in...

Southgate, London.

M/S of a birch tree, a cutter reaches up and snips off a branch. M/S of a garden, the man with the cutter is Peter Hilgeland, he picks up the fallen branch and walks off.

M/S of Peter's father Helmut Hilgeland in shorts surrounded by three young women dressed in bathing suits sat beside a swimming pool in another part of the garden. Helmut's daughter Elke is one of the girls, she has on a brown swimming costume. Next to her in a red costume is Pauline and the other girl is Vali, she is in green. Helmut is tearing off bits of birch, they are joined by Peter who puts his birch down and takes off his top to go swimming. C/U of the birch branch being picked up by Helmut, M/S of him putting a bit of string in his mouth and then tying it round the branch.

M/S of him handing the bundles of birch to the three girls. C/U of Pauline, she dips the birch in the swimming pool and starts hitting her back and arms with it. The narrator says this is the only private sauna bath in London, it is the Finnish version of the Turkish Bath. M/S Vali hitting herself with the twig - "a light beating with the twigs opens the pores and stimulates the circulation of the blood" according to the narrator.

L/S of the girls getting up from the pool side and running off to a wooden shed which is a steam hut. They enter and close the door. L/S of the hut with steam coming out of the top. M/S of the girls in the hut hitting themselves with the twigs again. C/U of a girl's face. C/U of the girl hitting her arms with the birch. M/S of Elke pouring water from a can onto hot stones which creates steam, M/S of the room completely steaming up.

M/S of the girls leaving the hut, Elke and Pauline put on their bathing caps. M/S of the girls jumping in to the pool to join two men. M/S of the girls swimming about doing backstroke. M/S of Vali getting out of the pool. They pick up their towels from the sun loungers.

M/S of a variety of sausages including salami. The narrator tells us Helmut is an international adviser on sausages. M/S of a man frying sausages in a frying pan over a portable stove. C/U of the sausages in the pan. M/S of the girls asleep on the sun loungers. M/S of Helmut slicing bread, the girls run up and start eating the food. C/U of Elke eating bread and sausages. C/U of her face.

Note: Lots of shots of young women beating themselves with birch branches!