A Movie Called 'The Swimmers'
Chlorine, rubber wetsuits, and...missiles?! This is not your typical sports drama
Netflix has a new movie out that is worth a watch. “The Swimmers,” which premiered earlier this year, won a 4-minute standing ovation from its audience at the Toronto International Film Festival. The story, based on the real lives of Yusra and Sara Mardini, follows the two Syrian sisters as they are forced to escape their country in pursuit of their dream of swimming together in the Olympics.
Cinematically Stunning
The movie is bound together by a dynamic script and powerful acting. It delivers scenes that not only capture the fear and desperation of each character but force the same from its audience as well. It is just as inspirational as it is difficult to come to terms with. On screen, the final product is a compelling mixture that is both aesthetically pleasing and emotionally jarring.
Camera Roll
Character Development
The movie follows a group that is likable, relatable, and dependable. On their journey, they are faced with a deceitful, lying smuggling business that runs throughout southeastern Europe. Even when faced with death’s doors themselves, they are unwaveringly focused and determined in their commitment. Their wit and insightfulness will have you falling for each of their stories as you get to know them.
Sound Bites
Yusra to Sara: “It’s late. We should go home.
Sara: “Why?”
Yusra: “We have to be at the pool at 6:00 a.m.”
Sara: “Do you seriously think there’s any point in training anymore?”
Yusra: (proudly) “If I want to be in the Olympics.”
*the whole group laughs*
Sara: “Swimming for who? There’s no country left anymore! Syria is gone! (mimics explosion sound) Haven’t you noticed?”
*Yusra looks around, disappointedly. The sounds of wailing sirens wail, yelling voices, and blaring car alarms echo around them. Sara looks down at her phone.*
Sara: (in a low voice) “Razzan Haddad is dead.”
*The group falls quiet. She is their third friend to be killed that month.*
*Yusra and Sara are walking home. They approach a group of soldiers standing at the end of their street. Sara stops to look at a graffitied wall.
“Your planes can’t bomb our dreams,” is painted in Arabic.
The soldiers intensify their stare but do not react. The girls carry on.
Yusra and Sara are sitting on a pier on the island of Lesbos, watching vacationing tourists. They are tired and weathered. The tourists are rowdy.
Sara: (under her breath) “They have no idea people are dying in that sea.”
Why You Should Watch It
In America, the brutality, the bombings, and the human rights violations that occur in other parts of the world are only ever displayed en masse through the biased lenses of our TV screens, our phones, and our chosen search engines. We are largely cut off from what happens in places like North Korea, Palestine, and Syria because we are cut off from their media outlets.
Evidently, the effect is that we do not concern ourselves with many aspects of what happens there. However, when confronted with the life led by someone without a country to call home in something as digestible as a movie, it can be unsettling.
This is a hero story with no need to cast a villain; it is simply played by the reality in which we live. The movie highlights our unwillingness to demand better and compels its audience to consider why refugees must exist in the first place.