The film centres on Caster Semenya. An Olympic runner who, despite being cleared to compete in female athletics in 2010, is constantly questioned about her gender because of hyperandrogenism. A condition that causes above-average levels of testosterone, giving her an appearance that differs from that of other female athletes.

The film starts with Caster winning a race in the present day. As she’s about to cross the finish line, time slows and we hear her voice start to question her detractors we begin to go back through time. We go back through moments of Caster’s life, reversing her successes and nullifying her hard work as she continues to question them - is this what they’d prefer? Finally, we go all the way back to her birth, because this is where she defiantly tells the skeptics: “Too bad. I was born to do this”.

At a time when the global narrative around female equality is so prominent and important, one of Nike’s most successful female athletes continues to be targeted and victimized for being different.

Caster Semenya, who has hyperandrogenism (a condition where her body naturally produces more testosterone than most women), was first accused of having an unfair advantage in competition in 2008. Her gender was publicly scrutinized, she was tested and subsequently cleared to compete in female competition.

This year, the international athletics body, the IAAF, announced new rules that bans female athletes like Caster. This film was made to build and show support for Caster as she prepared to run her last races, while fighting to overturn the ruling.

The visual technique of time running backwards in lyrical slow motion serves a storytelling point to reveal Caster Semenya’s athletic destiny. We combined the fluid grace of the reversed and slowed-down film with mediums that gave the imagery the lived-in authenticity of documentary. By running time in reverse and slowing it down Caster’s story acquires almost mythical power, it becomes a visual poem, a celebration of this unique woman’s skill, and spirit, whilst maintaining potent realness.