“The Swimmers” – the true story behind the Netflix movie

On a pitch black night, sisters Sarah and Yusra Mardini jump into the Mediterranean Sea. Not for fun, but to save lives. They are in a dinghy with a broken engine that is about to sink somewhere between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos.

The visuals in the new Netflix movie “The Swimmers” are impressive and inspiring because the events in this movie are real and based on the fate of the Mardini sisters. They grew up in Damascus and have been swimming since childhood. Yusra set a national record at 14, but when several of her teammates died in the civil war, she decides to flee to Germany with her sister (and cousin).

The two swam for more than three hours in the cold Aegean Sea and saved not only themselves, but also the 18 other refugees on the duct taped and overfilled inflatable boat by pulling it through the water. It is light when they finally see land and save themselves with the last of their strength on a Greek beach.

Sarah and Yusra are among nearly five million Syrians who fled their homeland in 2015. According to the UN refugee agency, nearly 4,000 people died in the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in 2015. In August, the sisters landed on Lesvos with 80,000 other people. Together with others they traveled on to Germany – some nights were beautiful, others terrifying, as Yusra describes the journey.

Yusra was only 17 at the time, but she had a very specific goal in mind: to swim for her country, Syria, at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. A dream that seems far away, because she has not been able to train for two years. Coach Sven Spannecrebs, who agreed to coach Yusra, also thought Tokyo in 2020 was a more realistic goal.

But everything went faster than expected.

She was given the opportunity to participate in the newly established refugee team. At first she didn’t want to; she wanted to swim to Syria. But then she agreed: “I have a responsibility to all the other refugees who are not being heard,” she told Glamour. And further: “[…] Sven said: ‘You decide who you want to be and not which team you compete for.’ I saw that.”

Yusra traveled to Rio.

And 2020 to Tokyo.

Since 2019, she is also the UN Special Envoy.

“The Swimmers”, currently the third most watched Netflix movie in Switzerland, not only shows a cruel fate, but also gives hope. Hope for survival, freedom and dreams.

“The Swimmers” is available to watch on Netflix.