THE SWIMMERS

MIND THE GAP | WORLD

US, UK, 2022 | Director: Sally El Hosaini

Yusra Mardini cherished one goal: To swim for Syria’s Olympic team. But that aspiration seemed dashed when her homeland’s civil war made her a refugee. Sally El Hosaini’s second feature, after her lauded 2013 debut My Brother the Devil, chronicles the incredible real-life story of Yusra (Nathalie Issa) and her sister Sarah (Manal Issa), as they make the perilous trek from the suburbs of Damascus to start life (and training) anew in Berlin. An idyllic candy-colored poolside childhood gives way to a meaner palette of life on the run in an epic drama that portrays these tough-minded teenagers’ courage in fleeing in an overcrowded dinghy, spending hours bobbing in the sea beside it to keep it afloat, and later, drawing attention to the worldwide refugee crisis. Through it all El Hosaini never lets us forget that these are simply girls like any others, with dreams. —Shari Kizirian

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Director

Sally El-Hosaini was born in Swansea, Wales, and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Her debut short film, THE FIFTH BOWL (2008), won a BAFTA for best regional film. Her first feature, MY BROTHER THE DEVIL (2012), won numerous honors, including the Label Europa Cinemas prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, Best First Feature – Special Mention at Frameline, and the Writers’ Guild of Britain Best Screenplay award.

Film Info

countries:

UK
|
United States

Year:

2022

Running Time:

134 min

Languages:

English, Arabic

Director:

Sally El Hosaini

Producers:

Tim Bevan, Tim Cole, Eric Fellner, Ali Jaafar

Cinematographers:

Christopher Ross

Editors:

Iain Kitching

Writers:

Sally El Hosaini, Jack Thorne

Cast:

Nathalie Issa, Manal Issa

sections:

WORLD CINEMA

venues:

Rafael 1