Höllin (2010)

The Palace captures the unique atmosphere and the magic of the everyday at the Reykjavik Swimming Pool. The film follows the routine of the pool, its staff and its customers over the course of two seasons, highlighting the timelessness that reigns inside the building. For the regulars "The Palace" is a sanctuary where they meet to discuss politics, set the world to rights, and of course to swim. The average age of the clientele is high and as a result attendance is rapidly declining. The film's main character is Kjartan, an 84-year-old man who lives across the road from the pool and shows up every morning at 6am to swim and meet his friends. Like many other regulars, Kjartan says that the swimming and the companionship he finds at the pool gets him out of bed in the morning. In the words of one of the regulars, it is "no fun talking to yourself". And though things change outside the thick, concrete walls of the Palace, seasons come and go, the country's economy collapses, inside everything remains reassuringly the same. The building has not changed for 73 years, and it is clear to anyone who enters the pool that neither has its soul.