Ian Darling’s The Pool is a film about just that, a pool. It is a 90 minute examination of a singular place - its community, individuals, rituals, obsessions, stories, connections, quirks, emotions, history and much more. It is a film that aims to simply observe a place, a place which encapsulates so much of what makes life, life that it becomes much more than a place - it becomes a world.

Ian DarlingSource Shark Island Productions

The world at the centre of The Pool is the Icebergs Ocean Pool in Bondi. If you were to visit the Icebergs Ocean Pool you would be given a small idea of this world - a mere outline in plain pencil. Darling’s film fills in these lines with intricate details, colour, dimension and ultimately life.

The film grew out of Darling’s desire to create a documentary that would explore community—a theme that became all the more relevant during the isolation of COVID-19. Initially uncertain of the subject to explore, Darling’s inspiration arrived unexpectedly.

“I was down at the pool having coffee one morning, after a swim, with one of the champion swimmers. And I said, I'm looking for this uplifting film about community. And she said, How about here? Sometimes the best ideas are right under your nose. I thought, actually, that's great. It’ll let me explore everything I wanted to—this beautiful location and a broad spectrum of community members. It was the perfect opportunity,” Darling says.

The Pool is unconventional in that it doesn’t follow a traditional plot or focus on any one main character. The pool itself is the protagonist. As you watch, you find yourself sinking into the rhythms and patterns of the pool’s community.

This is enhanced by the film’s unique structure, which doesn’t adhere to chronological order. Instead, the documentary is divided into sections that showcase different facets of the pool’s life. These segments are separated by meditative montages or continuous shots of waves, swimming, and water—a deliberate choice to create a calming atmosphere.

“We thought, let's just make a film that encourages people to watch the waves and stop looking at their phones, just settle into it,” says Darling. 

“All of the films I’ve made have tried to get into the rhythm of the subject, and swimming is inherently meditative. The pool is such a beautiful place. We need to spend more time looking at the ocean. So we’ve incorporated a lot of moments where people can just dream about their next swim, or their next surf, or even reflect on their own lives. I want people to think about how they feel about their community, and what they’re yearning for.”

Throughout the documentary, we meet several of the pool’s regulars: a group of squad swimmers who train every morning, a woman who is terrified of the water but keeps swimming, and another who swam daily during her cancer treatment, imagining that the bad stuff was leaving her body out of the top of her head. One of the most poignant moments features two friends who meet every morning for a swim and a coffee.

“They’re a couple of friends who meet at the pool at exactly 6:47 every morning. They just came alive on screen. They represented everything we wanted. You couldn’t have scripted it. One says, ‘I like to use a bit of talcum powder after the swim.’ Then they both dive in at exactly the same time at opposite ends, get out at the same time, and head up for coffee—ordering exactly the same coffee every day,” Darling says.

The touching exchange between Russell and Adrian encapsulates the film’s themes of friendship and routine:

Russell asks, “Can you imagine a time when we’re not coming here every morning?”

Adrian replies, “No.”

Russell nods and says, “Good answer.”

Darling reflects, “In that two-minute exchange, we captured so much about what we yearn for—why friendship is important, why routine matters. Swim squads exist because people don’t want to let each other down. Two friends rely on each other to show up at 6:47.”

Darling says these types of moments weren’t scripted or anticipated - they just happened.

“We didn't exactly know what we're getting on any day, but we just knew that we would keep coming back, and eventually we'd get what we wanted to tell the full, comprehensive story of what that consciousness was in the pool.”

The Pool is a fascinating, feel good, beautiful documentary which simply observes and attempts to encapsulate a tiny, microscopic location on this enormous round sphere we’re all floating on. And it shows just how much life and energy and complexity can be held inside one tiny location.

The Pool is showing in select cinemas around Sydney now, visit this website for all showtimes.

Ian Darling and his crew. Source Shark Island Productions