The Swimmers will be made available on Netflix in 2022 in an attempt to broaden the range of content in its catalog that is based on true events. The Swimmers tells the tale of two Syrian sisters who escaped their war-torn hometown of Damascus, swam across the Mediterranean waters to the Greek island of Lesbos in search of asylum, and then went on to participate in the pool at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Sally El Hosaini, a BAFTA winner, is the film’s director. El Hosaini and Jack Thorne, who also penned the script for Enola Holmes, collaborated on The Swimmers.

Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Ali Jaafar, and Tim Cole all contributed to the movie’s production. The executive producer is Stephen Daldry.

According to industry professionals, The Swimmers is one of Netflix’s top 2023 Oscar contenders.

The film, which is largely in English but also incorporates Arabic, has a 15 rating from the BBFC. It lasts 134 minutes in total.

The Swimmers on Netflix has the following additional information:

Plot

The Swimmers tells the story of the Mardini sisters, who nearly drowned while escaping war-torn Syria.

The two were planned to be smuggled into Greece in a congested dinghy that experienced an engine failure in the middle of the Aegean Sea after traveling to Lebanon and then Turkey. To prevent the boat from sinking and to make sure the safety of everyone else aboard the dinghy, the sisters swam for 3.5 hours. As a member of the Refugee Olympic Team in 2016, Yusra Mardini participated in swimming competitions at the 2016 Olympics.

The movie, which was filmed in the UK, Belgium, and Turkey in 2021, will make its world premiere on September 8 at the great Toronto Film Festival in 2022, but the exact launch date on Netflix is yet unknown.

The Swimmers is one of several Netflix films playing at TIFF. The opening night gala film, to be specific

As per sources, when asked about the TIFF nomination, director Sally El Hosaini said:

“I’m ecstatic. What an honor and privilege to open TIFF with the inspirational true-life story of the Mardini sisters. A city as multicultural and diverse as Toronto is the perfect place to debut our film that elevates the visibility and voice of refugees, reminding us that the human capacity to survive is stronger than most of us know.”

Cast

  • Manal Issa,
  • Nathalie Issa,
  • Ahmed Malek,
  • Matthias Schweighöfer,
  • Ali Suliman,
  • Kinda Alloush,
  • James Krishna Floyd
  • Elmi Rashid Elmi.