The Swimming Pool (2012 film)

The Swimming Pool
Film poster
SpanishLa Piscina
Directed byCarlos Machado Quintela
Written byAbel Arcos
Produced bySebastian Barriuso, Camilo Vives, Delfina Catala, Isabel Prendes
Release date
  • December 2012 (2012-12) (Havana)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryCuba
LanguageSpanish

The Swimming Pool (Spanish: La Piscina) is a 2012 Cuban art house film directed by Carlos M. Quintela and produced by Cuban-Canadian filmmaker Sebastian Barriuso. The film premiered at the 2012 Havana Film Festival,[1] and later showed at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival as part of the Panorama Special section.[2]

Synopsis

The film follows a swimming instructor and his four differently-abled students – Diana, whose leg has been amputated; Oscar, who refuses to speak; Dani, who has Down Syndrome; and Rodrigo, who has a mobility issues – and the tense conflict that arises between them.

Cast

  • Raúl Capote
  • Mónica Molinet
  • Felipe García
  • Carlos Javier Martínez
  • Marcos Costa

Critical reception

It was described as "contemplative and enigmatic" by Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter.[3]

Jaie Laplante, Director of Programming of the Miami Film Festival gave the film a positive review:

In Carlos Machado Quintela's debut feature film, which held its North American premiere at the 2013 Miami Dade College's Miami Film Festival, a minimalist aesthetic and extraordinary control of frame and composition question traditional patterns of cinematic syntax. The boundaries of the swimming pool wash away into the endless horizon, which is at once loaded and ; the scarcity of dialogue or spoken communication simultaneously suggests scar, respite, and threat.[4]

References

  1. ^ "m-appeal - The Swimming Pool". m-appeal.com. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  2. ^ "La Piscina | The Swimming Pool | Der Pool". www.berlinale.de. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  3. ^ Young, Deborah (14 February 2013). "The Swimming Pool (La Piscina): Berlin Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  4. ^ "On the Horizon Film Series: The Swimming Pool (La Piscina) and The Swimmers (Los Bañistas)". www.pamm.org. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
Stub icon

This article related to Cuban film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.