16mm color film with sound | Spain

The butterfly stroke is a form as elegant as it is effortful: a human simulation of flight in water. This duality—between machine and organism, imitation and individuality—reveals how culture molds the body through repetition, yet leaves space for unique expression. In swimming, the trained body performs effort as if it were ease, making visible both its limits and its possibilities. This film approaches swimming not as a universal movement but as a practice saturated with cultural scripts, cinematic illusions, and embodied experience. The swimmer’s body in motion is as much cultural choreography as it is athletic discipline.