Where Does Infinity Pool Take Place?
Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Infinity Pool.
With Infinity Pool,Brandon Cronenberg takes horror fans on a hellish trip to the paradisiac island country of La Tolqa in one of the best horror movies of 2023. For most of Infinity Pool’s runtime, fans will probably be shocked by La Tolqa’s bizarre law system or appalled by the psychedelic depravity of Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth’s descent into madness. However, after the credits roll, we are dragged back to the mundane reality of everyday life. And considering how beautiful the fancy resort used to shoot most of the movie is, some viewers may decide to schedule their next vacation once they finish the film. The bravest among us might even look to visit La Tolqa, despite its dangers. But is La Tolqa a real place? And where exactly was Infinity Pool filmed?
Is 'Infinity Pool’s La Tolqa a Real Place?
Fortunately, for obvious reasons, La Tolqa is not a real country and was created by Cronenberg for Infinity Pool. That means you won’t be able to create clones of yourself and party like there’s no tomorrow anytime soon. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t profit from the beautiful landscapes of the movie. The resort where Infinity Pool mostly takes place actually exists and is located in Croatia.
Located in the city of Šibenik, the Amadria Park Resort is indeed a heavenly destination where guests can enjoy beautiful beaches of white sand and luxurious rooms. Most of Cronenberg’s movie was shot at the resort, which means fans can rent a room that will give them the whole La Tolqa tourist experience, minus the fictional country’s strict law system and the scary masks.
What Countries Was 'Infinity Pool' Shot In?
While most of the Infinity Pool story happens inside the resort, Cronenberg also took his camera to Budapest to shoot some scenes. Whenever the movie moves from the resort to the main streets of La Tolqa’s cityscape, we are actually seeing buildings located in the Hungarian capital. Since Budapest is one of the biggest and most diverse cities in Europe, filled with unique neighborhoods, Hungary is a common destination for filmmaking. Budapest was also used to film part of Moon Knight, for instance. So, by making the trip to Hungary, fans can stroll through the country’s capital and try to find the exact building Cronenberg used to bring La Tolqa to life.
Between Croatia and Hungary, Infinity Pool took five weeks to film. After that, the movie was edited in Canada, Cronenberg’s country of origin. While shooting in Šibenik, Infinity Pool counted the help of 75 film professionals from Croatia and more than 400 extras. It’s no wonder that producer Karen Ella Harnisch said the movie’s creative team was “honored to call this a Canadian-Croatian-Hungarian co-production.”
Brandon Cronenberg Uses La Tolqa to Discuss Predatory Tourism
While La Tolqa is a fictional country, Cronenberg surely based his movie on real places. For starters, the harsh laws of La Tolqa, which give the death penalty for multiple crimes, seem to be inspired by Singapore or Myanmar. Both countries are located in Southeast Asia and are famous for the extreme treatment given to criminals. And since La Tolqa’s culture and local costumes seem to mimic south Asian traditions, it’s not a stretch to think Cronenberg did extensive research on these countries. Nevertheless, regardless of which country he’s trying to emulate, Cronenberg most definitely uses La Tolqa to discuss predatory tourism, especially the kind of tourism practiced by wealthy people.
In Infinity Pool, Goth’s Gabi is the leader of a group of rich people who go to La Tolqa every year to party. Despite knowing the consequences of breaking the law in the authoritarian country, Gabi and her friends constantly push their luck by using drugs, having orgies, and hurting innocent people who get in their way of having a good time. Since they can bribe La Tolqa’s officers, Gabi and other wealthy people can just make clones of themselves, who’ll be executed in their place. Watching themselves being brutally murdered becomes even its own kind of sordid pleasure. However, neither Gabi nor her friends ever stop to think about the damage they are doing to other people who don’t have the resources to escape all sorts of trouble. In short, they act like many, wealthy tourists who travel to third-world countries.
Since it’s cheap to travel to Latin America, Africa, and certain regions of Asia, third-world countries are common destinations for rich people to supposedly enjoy other cultures. In reality, the world’s biggest tourist destinations often reshape their local economy and cuisine to meet visitors’ expectations. In Infinity Pool, La Tolqa’s resort promises to offer an authentic local experience. Meanwhile, there are multiple events to offer guests food and cultural presentations from all over the world. It’s the same in every major touristic destination, where big resorts push away citizens to build safe havens where tourists can enjoy the experience of being elsewhere without actually mingling with the locals. As a result, it’s not unusual for third-world countries to offer touristic packages that are utterly unaffordable to those who live there.
Cronenberg is obviously concerned about how wealthy people can use their money to cause irreparable social damage. In Antiviral, he explores the extreme of celebrity culture, while Possessor imagines a dark future where murder-for-hire becomes untraceable. In Infinity Pool, Cronenberg's sci-fi story is used to explore the way rich people wave their wallets to evade the law. Simultaneously, the director ends up exploring the negative impact of tourism, which is already observable in many third-world countries and even in big European destinations. Still, Cronenberg made the right choice to create a fictional country instead of using a real place. Otherwise, Infinity Pool would have been restrained by the need to perfectly mimic some culture while still risking disrespecting the traditions of a specific social group. So, by only using other countries as inspirations, Cronenberg was able to ensure all the focus of Infinity Pool lies in its interesting social message and the unnerving imagery he conjures.
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