The Swimmers

The true story of Yusra and Sara Mardini. Two sisters train as swimmers in Damascus, their father preparing Yusra for the Olympics. As the war deepens they decide in 2015 to cross into Europe through Turkey. The event at the centre of the film happened in the Aegean: the engine of an overloaded inflatable failed and it began to founder. The two sisters got into the water and pushed the boat for hours until it reached Lesbos. Both were swimmers. They eventually reached Berlin. Yusra competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics on the Refugee Team, the first ever assembled. The sisters are played by real sisters, Nathalie and Manal Issa. Sally El Hosaini directed. Its strongest decision is refusing to turn the Olympic section into a story of triumph; Sara's story does not end there, and the film includes her later detention in Greece. A solid choice for anyone who likes drama drawn from real events. But it is trying to carry a sports-film structure and a refugee story at once, and its second half comes apart under that.