The film will also have its MENA premiere at the 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival.
Netflix has released a new trailer for Egyptian-Welsh director Sally El Hosaini’s drama The Swimmers.
The Swimmers will be available for streaming from November 23, 2022.
The film is produced by Working Title for Netflix. It is directed and written by El Hosaini and co-written by Jack Thorne, based on a true story.
The Swimmers will have its Middle East and North Africa premiere on the opening night of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), which will take place from November 13-22.
The film follows the journey from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Two young sisters embark on a harrowing journey as refugees, putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use.
In 2015, after their house was destroyed in the Syrian Civil War, the Mardini sisters decided to flee the country. They made their way to Lebanon and then Turkey, where they arranged to be smuggled into Greece by dinghy. In the middle of the Aegean Sea, the engine failed 15 minutes into the trip, they had to swim for three and a half hours in a bid to stop the boat from capsizing.
Starring Nathalie Issa, Manal Issa, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ahmed Malek, James Krishna Floyd, Elmi Rashid Elmi, Kinda Alloush and Ali Suliman. Directed and written by Sally El-Hosaini and co-written by screenwriter and playwright Jack Thorne. Produced by Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner alongside Ali Jaafar and Tim Cole with Stephen Daldry executive producing.
The Swimmers has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film festival and Zurich Film Festival.
