NATATORIUM *** Iceland / Finland 2024 Dir: Helena Stefansdottir. 105 mins
Writer/director Helena Stefansdottir’s Icelandic thriller and not a horror film Natatorium is the type of atmosphere where you just know that something is odd about the film world. People move about in the film in a direct almost ballet-type movement without unnecessary actions. There is something dark happening and you can’t sort it out, so you look and listen for clues.
Young Lilja (Ilmur María Arnarsdóttir) dreams of being in a travelling performance group so she comes to stay at the home of her grandmother Áróra (Elin Petersdottir) and grandfather Grimur (Valur Freyr Einarsson) for an audition. She has arrived at their home without announcing it in advance to her father Magnús (Arnar Dan Kristjánsson). The father’s sister Vala (Stefania Berndsen) asks her to check in on Lilja, revealing family problems with Lilja staying there.
The mystery swimming pool in the home which Natatorium is the old Latin term for seems to be one of the big reasons for their concerns. This is not the water of Eternal Youth as in She (1935) and Hammer Studios version (1965) nor is it like the superb Infinity Pool (2023) dispensing medical remedies or duplicates.
The key is Áróra’s other son Kalli (Jónas Alfreð Birkisson) Vala’s twin brother who is bedridden. Vala feels he should be in a hospital, yet Áróra insists he stays. Kalli at times appears Christ-like in bed being tended to by his followers. His body, physical shape with beard, movements, bathing etc. all recall Dutch and Flemish Renaissance Art loaded with iconography. The family makes it their duty to visit his room almost with reverence, some even sleep beside him.
The home, which is also a key, is a modernist showplace of a house, with dark glacial blue shadows, undulating curves and deep passage of wood corridors predominate. Like the labyrinthine interior of a pyramid burial catacombs, the home turns out to be the unwholesome home of the grandparents in very subtle ways with a well-crafted screenplay.
Natatorium features performances from the ensemble cast that are all stellar with hints of unsavoury yet plausible behavior. For instance, incest between brother and sister is hinted at, and sexuality such as a forbidden voyeuristic secret encounter between Lilja and her perhaps boyfriend in the water observed by her grandmother. These add texture, and drama and are never over the top with characters running a wide range of emotions. Witchcraft, manipulation and the Christian ethos of baptism and rebirth come together in an odd yet satisfying mix.
Review by Terry Sherwood