m-appeal_The Swimming Pool
m-appeal_The Swimming Pool
m-appeal_The Swimming Pool

The Swimming Pool

(La Piscina)

by Carlos Machado Quintela

Cuba/Venezuela 2012, 66 min

It's not about what we lack. It's about where we belong to.

A phlegmatic swimming instructor, a teenage girl who is missing a leg, a boy with Down’s Syndrome, another one with defective legs and one with no apparent physical disability but who refuses to speak, spend a day at the swimming pool. The five outcasts inevitably struggle, clash, separate – and in the end reunite thanks to their imperfections.

Awards

Special Mention - Nara IFF 2014
Jury Prize ex aequo - Marrakech IFF 2013
Golden Angel - Tofifest 2013
The World Cinema Amsterdam Jury Award - World Cinema Amsterdam IFF 2013
Best Film Award - Sopot FF 2013
Prix CCAS - Toulouse Latin American Film Festival 2013,
Découverte de la Critique Française - Toulouse Latin American Film Festival 2013,
Best First Feature - Miami IFF 2013,
Best First Film - Havana IFF 2012,
Best First Film - Festival del Cine Pobre 2012,
Premio al Riesgo y la Busqueda Artística - Muestra Joven ICAIC 2012
Cuban Films Showcase Rio de Janeiro 2017
On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection 2017

Festivals

World Premiere: La Habana IFF 2012

International Premiere: Berlinale Panorama 2013

Cast & Crew

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

Production: ICAIC, Alter Producciones Audiovisuales, Muestra Joven Programa Ibermedia, CNAC, Fundación Villa de Cine

Carlos Machado Quintela

Born the 9th of December 1984, La Habana Cuba. He studied
Audio-visual Communications at the Instituto Superior de Artes of La
Habana. During his time there, he made several short films, including
“Almost”, an experimental short, and “Jorge and Elena”, his graduation
thesis, which was selected for screening at the Short Film Corner
Court-Metrage Cannes Film Festival 2010. He received the “Making
Cinema” prize from the Young Filmmaker’s Showcase (ICAIC), which
facilitated the making of his first feature film “The Swimming Pool”,
shot in 2009 and completed in 2012. During this period he also
enrolled to study Scriptwriting at The International Film and
Television School of San Antonio de los Baños. His scriptwriting
credits include the shorts “Siesta” (directed by Kate Hartnoll,
EICTV), “Wood” (directed by Daniel Kvitko, EICTV) and “The Blue Car”
(directed by Valerie Heine, co-produced by EICTV and the Academy of
Media Arts Cologne KHM, Germany currently in post-production).

His graduation thesis script “Ismael” won the Coral Prize for Best
Feature Un-filmed Script at the Habana Film Festival 2012. “The
Swimming Pool” has received various prizes for Best First Film on a
national level, and will have its International Premier at the 63rd
Berlin Film Festival, in the Panorama section of the festival.

m-appeal