Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for the Netflix film, The Swimmers.
Based on true events, Sally El Hosaini's The Swimmers sheds light on the lives of Sarah Mardini (Manal Issa) and Yusra Mardini (Nathalie Issa), two Syrian refugees who escape their war-torn country to find a new life in Europe. The latter of the two went on to represent the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But the best part about Hosaini's biographical drama is not just the magnitude of the Mardini sisters' achievement and bravery. There are many inspiring moments throughout the movie that makes The Swimmers a touching drama with the refugee crisis at the heart of it. While the three-hour-long swim across the Aegean Sea is the defining moment of the film's storyline, there are many other events as well that will inspire awe and shock from the audiences. With a tale of a refugee making it big on the Olympic stage being presented, it's worth questioning how much of The Swimmers is dramatized to present a tale of guts and gumption. Although Hosaini has agreed of making fictionalizations in favor of honoring the larger refugee crisis, it's worth exploring how much of these fictionalizations make the film's depiction deviate from the true story of the Mardinis.
Sally El Hossain and Jack Thorne start Yusra and Sarah Mardini's story from way before they actually fled Syria. The Swimmers takes off in 2011 when the flames of the Arab Spring had just started reaching Syria and the Syrian Revolution had started taking shape. Against the backdrop of the ensuing chaos, Mohamed Ezzat Mardini (Ali Suliman), a former national swimmer himself, continues to train his daughter, Yusra and Sarah, in the hopes of making them represent Syria in the Olympics one day. While the 7th grader Yusra is focused on her father's goal, Sarah is shown to be politically aware of the crisis developing in the country. The Swimmer then fast forwards four years in 2015 when Yusra and Sarah leave Syria to somehow reach Europe and seek refuge for their family under the family reunion policy.
Did The Swimming Pool Scene Really Happen?
The conditions in Syria were quite similar (or probably worse) by 2015 when the decision was taken by the Mardinis to send Yusra and Sarah to Europe along with two of their cousins. It can be said though that The Swimmers did leave a few details about the conditions under which Yusra and Sarah were sent away from Syria. A detail that the film doesn't show is that the family's house was destroyed and Ezzat Mardini was arrested and tortured by the paramilitaries after he was mistaken to be someone else.
In possibly the most impactful scene of the film, an unexploded bomb is seen to have come through the roof of the swimming pool where Yusra was training. This event, which actually triggers the decision by the Mardinis to send Yusra and Sarah to Europe, did take place in reality. While it may not be as dramatic as picturized by Hosaini, Yusra's close call with death in this scene was inspired by a real incident, and it goes on to depict the conditions in Syria back then.
The Valiant Swim Across The Aegean Sea
The journey of the sisters to Europe is portrayed quite realistically in the movie. The journey, which took 25 days, started with the sisters taking a flight from Damascus via Lebanon to Turkey. Upon reaching Turkey, they got in touch with a smuggler who helped them reach Mytilene, the capital of the Greek island Lesbos. Much like what's shown in the film, the two sisters did have to wait for quite some time before leaving for the Greek island on the boat. However, a detail that's missed in the film is that the sisters had to wait for nearly four days before they started their voyage to the Greek island.
The journey started on a disastrous note itself, when a small dinghy awaited to take them to Europe as opposed to a proper boat. About 20 minutes into the journey, the overcrowded dinghy's engine broke down. As seen in the Netflix movie, Sarah was the first one to jump into the water followed by Yusra. Two others also joined the sisters in helping save the boat from sinking completely for the sake of those in the dinghy who couldn't swim.
Yusra Mardini's Journey To Berlin
Sarah told Vogue that she worried the most about Mustafa, a 6-year-old who was accompanying them. In The Swimmers, this is portrayed in essence with a child shown to be onboard. After more than three hours, they were finally able to touch land when they reached the island of Lesbos. During the journey, the movie also shows that they got in touch with a Greek operator who refused to help the group. However, this is most possibly a fictionalized detail added for a touch of drama. In the same scene, Yusra is seen throwing her swimming medals in the water, another fictionalized incident as Yusra herself revealed that she lost all her belongings when her house was destroyed. But the scene still captures Yusra's emotions of losing her most valuable assets. The fictionalization also includes Sarah developing some affection for one of the members of the refugee group, Emad.
However, the difficulties were not over for the sisters as they faced discrimination and an unwelcoming attitude from the residents as shown by Hosaini. From there on, a journey on land took the sisters through Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary. In her own words, Yusra recalled her journey through Hungary as "awful." In the film, Yusra is shown to have been assaulted by a man during her stay in the country. But this detail has not come up anywhere else in the many retellings of Yusra and Sarah's brave journey through Europe. The sisters finally find refuge in Germany as Angela Merkel openly welcomed the Syrian refugees in 2015.
The Swim To Olympic Glory For Yusra Mardini
In the film, Yusra is seen promising her father that she will continue to train when she reaches Berlin. In reality, she did keep her promise. Upon discovering about a local swimming club, Wasserfreunde Spandau 04, from an interpreter at the refugee camp, Sarah and Yusra managed to get a tryout for themselves. At the club, they met Sven Spannekrebs (Matthias Schweighöfer) who not only took them on but also expedited the paperwork to help them access lodging and training facilities. According to The Swimmers, Yusra's swimming career would have been reduced to local swimming competitions had it not been for the International Olympic Committee's decision to formulate the Refugee Olympic Team in March 2016. But Sven had already started talking to the authorities about Yusra's chances for the Tokyo Olympics. Fortunately for Yusra, the IOC decision helped reduce the wait for the Olympic dream as with her mentor Sven's help, Yusra Mardini went on to represent the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio in 2016.
On the other hand, Sarah did not show much interest in pursuing a career as a swimmer. Going by the film and reality, Sarah made the decision that she wanted to help refugees like her who were dying in hopes of finding a new life. After the events of the film, Sarah enrolled in Bard College in Berlin and started volunteering for Emergency Response Centre International, an NGO based in Lesbos. In 2018, Sarah was arrested by Greek authorities and put in the high-security Koryallos prison on charges of smuggling people illegally for a criminal organization. Her arrest even drew criticism for Greece from Amnesty International for criminalizing the humanitarian work done by Sarah.
An account of everything depicted in The Swimmers by Sally El Hosaini results in the conclusion that a majority of the movie has been based on real-life events with only minor deviations to add drama to an already interesting story. Hosaini has made an attempt to shed light on the larger refugee crisis through the story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini. Thus, it's clear that the events have been molded on multiple occasions to give voice to the horrors faced by refugees the world over. To achieve the same, Yusra and Sarah's story has been also used as a vehicle to carry the message. Clearly, the alterations have been made with Yusra's approval. Despite the minor differences in the events of the film and the true events that have inspired them, The Swimmers manages to respect the real struggle of the individuals whose voices are echoed throughout the runtime.