| The Swimming Pool | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Carlos Machado Quintela |
| Producer: | Sebastian Barriuso, Camilo Vives, Delfina Catala, Isabel Prendes |
| Runtime: | 66 minutes |
| Country: | Cuba |
| Language: | Spanish |
The Swimming Pool (Spanish; Castilian: 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]
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.
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]