Both adversity and triumph abound in Sally El Hosseini swimmers, An undeniably powerful but unavoidable episodic drama that follows the harrowing real-life flight of two sisters from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
After its first regular release since 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film’s November 23 world premiere before Netflix’s adoration is set for a strong response, especially to the brothers’ performances at the Olympics. Hopeful Yusra Mardin and her older sister Sarah.
swimmers
A powerful but uneven refugee drama.
Before the start of the civil war in Syria, rebel Sara (Manal Issa) and her younger sister Yusra (Natalie Issa) lived the life of ordinary teenagers in the sunny suburbs of Damascus when they weren’t swimming competitively. The father of his trainer (Ali Suliman).
But when escalating violence hits too close to home, the sisters, in the company of their cousin Nizar (Ahmed Malek), embark on a perilous journey from Damascus to Berlin via Istanbul, Lesbos and Budapest. The journey is plagued by ghostly smugglers and bureaucracy who threaten to reunite with the rest of the family as they wait for their asylum to be approved.
Just when his Olympic dreams seem unattainable, Yusra meets a friendly German swim coach (Matthias Schwegoffer), who convinces him to compete for Rio’s newly formed refugee team instead of representing Syria.
In his second feature film since 2012 my brother the devilWelsh-Egyptian filmmaker El Hossain displays a mastery of imagery that is both poetic and powerful. In his hands and in the hands of his cinematographer Christopher Ross, sequences in which an unexploded bomb slowly sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool or a group of refugees making their way through a veritable sea of ​​orange and yellow life jackets belonging to everyone. the ones that came before they packed a visceral and surreal punch
Also strong is the unbreakable bond of sisterhood, beautifully and tenderly portrayed in the performances of Lebanese actresses Manali and Natalie Issa, which endures despite their distinctly individual personalities and desires.
But the screenplay, written by El Hossain and Jack Thorne (wonderful) and based on Yusra’s 2018 autobiography, Mariposa: from refugee to Olympics, also finds it fitting to release the kind of standard, crowd-pleasing win ending (with obligatory fanfare from composer Stephen Price) that audiences expect. Given what the brothers have been through so far, the timing can’t help but feel a little disappointing. Especially when these Olympic training sequences stretch out in time compared to the deliberate, thoughtful pacing of the rest of the movie.
In Yusra and Sarah Mardin’s remarkable survival story, their journey of empowerment is ultimately more rewarding than the usual fate.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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