With its vibrant blue swimming pools, blaringly bright skies and formidably beautiful cast, Peccadillo Pictures newest release The Swimmer is enough to give even the most colourful insta filter a run for its money.

(minor spoilers to follow)

Thankfully, The Swimmer wastes absolutely no time showing us some skin with the intro leading us almost immediately to a speedo-clad training session. It’s crystal clear from the get go that director Adam Kalderon is going to tease thirsty viewers from start to finish with sneak peeks of biceps, chests and hips. 

The story centres around swimmer Erez (Omer Perelman Striks) as he joins a training school with a group of other athletes (think of the jocks you see on TV but underwater). As sullen as water is wet, Erez is set on joining the Israeli team with ‘the Olympic ticket’ and going all the way as it were. Unfortunately though, so are all the others.

The Swimmer slowly highlights the intense pressures put on athletes. Anger, anorexia and psychological warfare all play their part in the film as Erez and the other athletes struggle to cope in their training. An overbearing coach sees Erez unravel, possibly due to his sexuality, although this isn’t really explored. His first place status starts to crumble as he is challenged both in the water and out – the fierce competition to be the bigger fish takes its toll.

He soon meets Nevo and would you believe it but it looks like he’s about to catch some repressed feelings. Nevo appears to be the only other boy on the team with a girlfriend so naturally it looks as though he might like Erez too – cue the longing side-eyes and pensive stares from both characters. 

The will-they-won’t-they element of the film soon dampens out as the plot dives more into Erez’s turmoil of sexuality vs success. At the start you’ll be eagerly waiting for Erez to start kissing the other speedo boys, but pressure soon develops the character into a sneaky-snake and quite frankly, a bit of a knob.

What The Swimmer lacks in storytelling, it more than makes up for in skin on screen and frequent full frontal. It seems to build up throughout but ultimately belly flops as nothing really happens before both the training and the film close on an underwhelming epiphany for Erez. But, who needs a groundbreaking plot line when there’s a great big splash of homo-eroticism?

Showing at the BFI Flare LGBTQIA+ Film Festival March 2022.