Nadia, Butterfly
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''Nadia, Butterfly'' is a 2020 Canadian sports drama film, directed by Pascal Plante and released in 2020. The film stars
Katerine Savard Katerine Savard (born May 26, 1993) is a Canadian former competitive swimmer who specializes in women's butterfly events and freestyle relay. She holds several Canadian national records in the butterfly over the 50-, 100-, and 200-metre distan ...
as Nadia, an Olympic swimmer struggling to redefine her life after retiring from the sport at the conclusion of the
2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
. Its cast also includes Canadian competitive swimmers Ariane Mainville and Hilary Caldwell in supporting roles as Nadia's friends and teammates, as well as Pierre-Yves Cardinal.


Cast

*
Katerine Savard Katerine Savard (born May 26, 1993) is a Canadian former competitive swimmer who specializes in women's butterfly events and freestyle relay. She holds several Canadian national records in the butterfly over the 50-, 100-, and 200-metre distan ...
as Nadia * Ariane Mainville as Marie-Pierre * Pierre-Yves Cardinal as Sébastien * Hilary Caldwell as Karen * Cailin McMurray as Jess


Production and distribution

Plante wrote the film in part based on his own experiences as a competitive swimmer who tried out, but did not qualify, to represent Canada at the
2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
. He has described the film as "basically a film about the post-Olympic blues, the very tipping point of that transition from being an athlete to having to redefine herself and understanding what it means to leave it all behind". Savard, an Olympic swimmer, auditioned for the role after being one of the swimmers Plante consulted for input into the screenplay. The film was shot in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
and
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
in 2019, with swimming scenes filmed at Montreal's real
Olympic Pool An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the Swimming (sport), swimming events at the World A ...
from the
1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...
. The film was named as an Official Selection of the
2020 Cannes Film Festival The 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival was scheduled to take place from 12 to 23 May 2020. On 13 January 2020, Spike Lee was named as the president of the Jury. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, festival management announced on 14 ...
, but was not screened due to the cancellation of the physical festival in light of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. It instead premiered at the 2020 Quebec City Film Festival, and had its commercial premiere on September 18, 2020.


Reception


Critical response

For ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'', David Rooney wrote that "Most movies about the physical rigors and psychological toll that force high-performance athletes to give up their chosen discipline — whether it's swimming, track and field, ballet or any other — tend to focus on the pain and injuries, the punishing schedule, the exhaustion, the disappointments of a career in decline. What makes Plante's drama distinctive is that the decision to quit has already been made both privately and publicly, and the detachment is already in process as Nadia (Katerine Savard) gives an awkward press interview while she's still catching her breath after an individual race toward the close of the Tokyo Summer Olympics. "I guess I'm trying to end on a good note", she says, visibly anxious to step away". Writing for ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'', Barry Hertz stated that the unfortunate coincidence of the film's timing, having been filmed before but released after the cancellation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, gave the film's setting at that event an unintentional veneer of
alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...
. He opined that "while Savard has her moments - including a deep cry backstage after capturing the bronze - she is not strong enough to do the heavy emotional lifting that the film's script requires. As written by Plante, Nadia is a woman at constant war with her instincts, requiring a performer to find a way to wordlessly convey such tension on-screen. Savard mostly offers faraway stares, frequently looking lost and in need of micro-managed direction". He concluded that the film "is not quite a medallist. But it's certainly a spirited contender". Chris Knight of the ''
National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.
'' also concurred that the film's setting at an event that was cancelled in reality technically made it a science fiction movie, but praised Savard and the other non-professional actors in the cast for their naturalistic performances. He rated the film 4.5 stars out of five, concluding that "Nadia, Butterfly doesn’t feature any fireworks beyond the literal kind that mark those Games that never actually took place. But it doesn’t need to. The introspection and contemplative mood are all that is required to pull the viewer into this woman’s world. Nadia may have only come in third place at the Olympics, but Nadia, Butterfly takes the gold". The film was named to TIFF's year-end
Canada's Top Ten Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films."Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema". ''Welland Tribune'', November 23, ...
list for feature films.


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, nadia_butterfly 2020 films 2020s sports drama films Canadian sports drama films English-language Canadian films Films shot in Montreal Films about Olympic swimming and diving Films shot in Tokyo Films directed by Pascal Plante 2020 drama films French-language Canadian films 2020s Canadian films