The life of the sisters Yusra and Sarah Mardini suffered a severe setback with the outbreak of civil war in syria. In August 2015, these two young swimmers, ages 17 and 20, who aspired to represent their country at the Rio Olympics, had to flee Damascus in order to reach Europe.
A decision that they were forced to make due to the conflict that originated in their country. During their escape, they had to experience all kinds of dramatic situations that are now included the movie ‘The Swimmers’, which has been released on Netflix.
The actresses Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa, who are also sisters, are in charge of getting into the shoes of these two swimmers who, for years, have been competing for the Syrian Olympic Committee. In fact, in 2012 Yusray had the opportunity to represent her country even in three different modalities at the FNA World Swimming Championships.
This film, Directed by Sally El Hosaini Based on a script written by herself along with Jack Thorne, it is a reflection of the hard journey that these sisters had to make, against the backdrop of war, immigration, the spirit of self-improvement and sports values.
The hard journey of these two sisters
Yusra and Sarah Mardini decided to flee their country after his house was destroyed because of the war. At first, they went to Lebanon and after that they traveled to Turkey. From there, they tried to access the Greek island of Lesbos by boat after making a deal with a smuggler.
In total, 20 traveled in this boat, arranged for less than a dozen people. When they were going through the middle of the Aegean Sea, the engine began to misfire, causing the boat to begin to make water.
In those moments, these sisters did not hesitate to start push the boat with two other people that they also knew how to swim in order to save all those who traveled with them. Three and a half hours later, they managed to reach their destination. Undoubtedly, a whole story of overcoming that allowed them to arrive safely on said Greek island.
However, your journey does not end here, and it is that after this they set course for Berlin, proasting through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria. Once there, they spent eight months in a refugee center before being granted asylum and being able to reunite with their parents.
Participation in the Olympic Games
The feat of these two sisters in pushing the boat to the shore acquired great public relevancecausing the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 swimming club to take an interest in them.
In this way, he contacted these two swimmers, offering them his facilities so that they come back to training Despite the fact that Sarah was unable to continue competing due to injury, Yusra did manage to enter the ten people selected to join the first refugee Olympic team in history.
At 24 years old, Yusra achieved her dream of participate in the Olympic Games in 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, and in 2020, in Tokyo, where she was even the flag bearer of the federation.
This is how their lives changed after fleeing their country
Yusra got german nationality and was named UNHCR’s youngest Goodwill Ambassador in 2017. In addition, she has not hesitated to tell her story by publishing a book called ‘Butterfly: from refugee to Olympic swimmer. My story of overcoming and hope’.
For her part, Sarah decided resume his law studies and collaborates with an NGO in Berlin. In August 2018, she was arrested along with 22 other aid workers, accused of belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering, espionage, fraud, and human trafficking.
Altogether, he had to stay in prison 107 days. Now, she continues to await trial and faces prison terms of up to 25 years. For her part, she assures that the only crime she has committed was waiting with blankets and water for those people who, like her, came to Lesbos.
A complicated situation that led him to have a depression and for which International Amnesty he tries to intercede to have the charges dropped.
