Experiencing Interruptions?

The Pool

Elderly figures drift around a fractured swimming pool, caught between memory and inertia.

  • Minna Väisänen
    Director
  • Paul Hayes
    Writer
  • Johnny La Rock
    Music
    CTYKDS
  • Not the King
    Music
    Thinking of You
  • Bi/etterminds .
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short, Web / New Media
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 22, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    0 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Finland
  • Country of Filming:
    Finland
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • TJOV Uluslararası Kısa Film Festivali
    Istanbul
    Türkiye
    April 18, 2026
    Asian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Films That Move 2025.
    St. Andrew
    Jamaica
    December 7, 2025
    Caribbean Premiere
    Honorable Selection
  • Toronto Global Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    December 20, 2025
    North American Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Minna Väisänen

Minna Väisänen is a Finnish director and visual artist working in comics, animation, and digital media. She adapts the collaborative comics of Bi/etterminds (created with Paul Hayes) into her animations—The Pool, Peephole to the Past, Building, The Year-Long Golf Course, Grief, Not Ethnic Enough, Monastery of Small Failures, and Soldiers Without Borders—exploring memory, identity, isolation, and the subtle forces shaping everyday life.

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Director Statement

The Pool is an exploration of intimacy, vulnerability, and the quiet anxieties of everyday life. Adapting a collaborative comic with Paul Hayes, the animation uses water, reflections, and confined spaces to evoke the tension between desire and discomfort. It’s a study of personal boundaries, fleeting encounters, and the emotional undercurrents that ripple beneath ordinary moments.