The Pool

The Pool (2007)

A boy in abject poverty works in a hotel and becomes obsessed with a swimming pool in the opulent hills of Panjim, Goa, India. His life gets turned upside-down when he attempts to meet the mysterious family who lives at the house.

Date of release
2007-01-24
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (14)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Drama
Director
Chris Smith

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: Sundance Special Jury Prize for Singularity of Vision Dramatic

The Pool is a 2007 American drama film co-written and directed by Chris Smith. The film stars non-professional actors Venkatesh Chavan and Jhangir Badshah, as well as Bollywood veteran Nana Patekar and newcomer Ayesha Mohan.

Production

After American Job (1996), American Movie (1999), Home Movie (2001), and The Yes Men (2003), Milwaukee-based director Chris Smith read a story, written by Randy Russel, about a person from a graduate school in Iowa. This person, who is out running, sees a swimming pool and gets obsessed with swimming in it. He follows around the people who own the place and tries to befriend them.

The film is a collaborative result of a crew that was half-based in India and United States. The crew included producer Kate Noble, creative consultant Xavier Leplae, whose film I'm Bobby was shot in the Indian state of Goa. Xavier's brother, Didier Leplae, who composed the score with Joe Wong in Milwaukee, had it arranged by a Bollywood composer, and recorded by a small orchestra in Mumbai.

Though the story was originally set in Iowa, Smith chose the port city of Panjim, Goa due to his long-time fascination with the city, especially the contrast between the rich and the poor. For the 65-day shoot, Smith and his crew moved to India for a five-month period. While referring to this cinematic endeavour as an experiment, he felt that the journey to India was crucial in clearing up his creative space to work.

Smith once thought of aborting the project because they were unsuccessful in locating a bungalow with a pool. Eventually, they managed to lease one from a New Zealand-Indian.

Saying that this film was the hardest he ever worked on in his life, Smith added that casting for the film was quite a challenge. The crew lost three lead actors due to various reasons. While one of them went to Mumbai on the pretext of buying karate uniforms and never returned, a young girl could not obtain permission for leave from school. The actor originally chosen for the father's role left them for a television series.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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