The Swimmer Who Went From the Olympics to Auschwitz and Back Again | Aeon

The Oscar-nominated short Butterfly (Papillon) finds beauty, pain and poetry in the extraordinary life of the Algerian-born Jewish French swimmer Alfred Nakache (1915-83), who competed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, survived the Holocaust, and returned to compete at the 1948 London Olympics. The French animator Florence Miailhe frames the story of his life through the memories that unfold over one final swim, as scenes of falling in love, living through Auschwitz, and the joy and freedom he found in water emerge stroke by stroke. To craft her portrait, Miailhe drew on both her dazzling artistry, painting each frame by hand, and a personal connection to Nakache, who crossed paths with her father as a fellow member of the French resistance in the city of Toulouse. In both the film’s narrative and its visual style, Nakache’s story finds a powerful resonance in continuous movement — through water and through life.