Athens
23
11
2022
CULTURAL EVENT

Syrian sisters' tale of landing on Lesvos debuts on Netflix

In 2015, Yusra and Sarah Mardini, 2 sisters fleeing war-torn Syria, had to swim for their lives reaching Lesvos after their inflatable dinghy broke down in the middle of the Aegean Sea.
In 2015, Yusra and Sarah Mardini, 2 sisters fleeing war-torn Syria, had to swim for their lives reaching Lesvos after their inflatable dinghy broke down in the middle of the Aegean Sea.

The following year, Yusra raced in the 100-meter freestyle at Rio 2016 as part of the first ever Refugee Olympic Team. On the other hand, in 2018, Sarah wound up in a maximum-security prison in the Hellenic capital, charged with spying, human smuggling, and belonging to a criminal organization.

Their story, "The Swimmers", is a 2022 biographical drama film directed by Sally El Hosaini from a screenplay that she co-wrote with Jack Thorne. The film stars Nathalie Issa, Manal Issa, Ahmed Malek, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ali Suliman, Kinda Alloush, James Krishna Floyd, and Elmi Rashid Elmi.

The movie had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th, 2022, and was released in select cinemas on November 11th, 2022. As of today, Wednesday,  November 23rd, 2022, the film will be available to the public on Netflix.

tags: Culture Greece Media Special Feature