DUBAI: Netflix has announced that it has teamed up with Egyptian-Welsh director and screenwriter Sally El-Hosaini on a new film titled “The Swimmers,” based on the true story of Syrian refugees-turned-Olympians Sarah and Yusra Mardini.
The film tells the story of the two sisters and competitive swimmers and their miraculous journey as refugees from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Yusra competed as a swimmer as part of the Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROT).
Lebanese actresses, and real-life sisters, Manal and Nathalie Issa will portray Yusra and Sarah Mardini in the upcoming movie.
They will be joined by Arab-Israeli actor Ali Suliman, Egyptian actor Ahmed Malek, Syrian actress Kinda Alloush and “The Good Karma Hospital” star James Krishna Floyd, who starred in El-Hosaini’s last film “My Brother the Devil,” which won the World Cinema Cinematography at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Proud to be part of this important film THE SWIMMERS dir by @sallyelh. Humbled 2 work w the dream team of Netflix, Working Title, Stephen Daldry, @jackthorne & @MSchweighoefer. Great to be working w Sally again after #MyBrotherTheDevil. Press release here https://t.co/TN1gRAVUC4 pic.twitter.com/a0gKAWGjwC
— James Krishna Floyd (@iJamesFloyd) April 20, 2021
Rounding out the cast are German actor Matthias Schweighöfer and YouTube star Elmi Rashid Elmi.
The forthcoming film will be produced by Working Title’s Eric and Tim Bevan, Ali Jaafar and Tim Cole. Stephen Daldry is the executive producer.
“The Swimmers” is set to begin production this week, shooting in the UK, Turkey and Belgium.
It is slated for global release on Netflix in 2022.
