The Swimmers – An Imperfect True Story Drama (Early Review)

The Swimmers tells the inspirational true-life story of sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini and had its world premiere at this years Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows the miraculous journey made by the two sisters who fled as refugees from a war-torn Syria all the way to Germany before eventually making it to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Faced with unspeakable challenges along the way, including traveling on foot through Europe to Germany and pushing a dinghy full of people in the Aegean Sea to safety, the film chronicles every challenge and obstacle both Yusra and Sara had to overcome along the way.

It’s only fitting with The Swimmers being the story of real-life sisters, that the filmmakers decided to cast real life sisters in the lead roles. Both Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa are terrific and give very spirited performances as as Yusra and Sara Mardini. Their relationship and their stellar chemistry serve as the beating heart of the film as they perfectly sell the film’s more emotional and hard-hitting moments as well as its more humorous and warm-hearted ones. Despite focusing a little more on Yusra than it does Sara, both are fully fleshed out as audience will surely feel like they know nearly everything about them by the end. The entire cast across the board are great, however, the biggest standout is Schweighöfer as Sven, the coach who takes the sisters on once they reach Germany. Schweighöfer brings a lot of warmth and humor to the film and develops a touching relationship with Yusra and Sara. Unfortunately, he isn’t introduced until fairly late in the game and as a whole, the film would have been better served with more of him.

Because of the true story factor, the structure of the film is a little all over the place therefore feel a bit uneven as a result. Each act feels like its own film with almost a completely different tone than the act that preceded it. While this is not as distracting as it sounds, it can still be a bit jarring going from an intense and gritty survival story with life-or-death stakes to a more traditional and uplifting sports film. Another aspect that holds it back is the length. With a running time clocking in at 134 minutes, the film could’ve been condensed and shortened a bit. It feels much longer than it actually is and unfortunately there’s quite a few scenes that drag on or feel pretty repetitive of each other.

While The Swimmers could’ve been a bit stronger and more focused overall, it is nonetheless still an inspirational, heartfelt and emotional true story that will undoubtedly resonate with a lot of viewers. A feel-good story at its core, thankfully director Sally El Hosaini doesn’t shy away from the story’s darker or more intense subject matter. In the end, the film is both an uplifting swimming drama and a harrowing survival story that will surely win the hearts of many audiences.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/