“The swimmers” by Sally El Hosaini

The swimmers, directed by Sally El Hosaini (with Matthias Schweighöfer, Manal Issa, Nathalie Issa, Ali Suliman), tells the story based on real facts of two sisters, Yusra and Sara Mardini. Both of them were early trained by their dad to become Olympic swimmers for Syria but during the summer 2015, as the war in Syria became too difficult to bear, they took the decision to go to Germany with their cousin in order to pursue their dreams. What makes their story incredible is the fact that, as they were in the sea on boat with too many other refugees, during their trip to a Greek island called Lesbos, the boat started to sink. It was too heavy for all of them so both sisters decided to swim next to the boat for hours in order to make it out of there alive, and they did. After they finally arrived to Germany, the little sister, Yusra, does not want to give up on her Olympic goal and so she kept training with Sven, a German coach who agreed to take her in. In the end, she competed for the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio in 2016.

During their journey, we can see a lot of details that were surprisingly accurate. As they leave Syria to begin their trip, we can feel the danger of being at war but in my opinion, it was still surprising to see how it is only a part of the city being at war while other Syrians party. Before taking the boat for Lesbos, we can acknowledge street vendors selling lifeboat jackets, and after they survived, all of those same lifeboat jackets were thrown on the ground by fellow refugees who have made it. They meet many people from very different backgrounds, showing different aspects of why one need to flee its country and the diversity attached to it. When they arrive to Europe, there is a harsh representation on how South-East Europeans are acting as the bad ones and Western Europeans as being the welcoming ones, and I felt it being a bit wrong as this is going to reinforce stereotypes towards those people. But it did get more accurate afterwards as we can understand how hard and long the process to get papers is in Germany and how the administration just must follow the rules without exception. Their cousin will complain about it at some point saying how there is nothing for him here (Germany), and nothing for him there (Syria). Therefore, you can feel how torn refugees are between two worlds, their hopes and their home. There is also a slight representation of post traumatic mental disorders which refugees can experience. This movie stays a good representation on how refugees are not actually been treated as human beings but as refugees, and that is what Yusra is going to fight during all her trip and by going to Rio as an Olympic swimmer in the refugee team. She wanted to prove that she was worth it and that she could give hope to others.

At the very end of the film, there is a part where the two real sisters are shown, as well as real pictures from things we might have seen in the movie, which makes it real and legitimate as a story.

As a sidenote, the director, Sally El Hosaini, was born in Swansea, Wales, of Egyptian-Welsh parentage, and raised in Cairo. She studied Arabic at Durham University before teaching English literature at a girl’s school in Yemen. She then decided to work for Amnesty International and ended up making movies.