Based on a true story, Sally El Hosaini’s stirring drama follows two Syrian sisters, both talented swimmers, as they flee the conflict in their country in the hope of a better life in Germany. It then morphs into a fairly run-of-the-mill underdog sports movie. The first section is markedly superior to the second. Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa star as Yusra and Sara Mardini, spirited young women coached by their father and, in the case of Yusra, nurturing dreams of Olympic glory. But the rising death toll and a bomb in a swimming pool convinces the family that the girls’ future lies elsewhere.
Bold editing and immersive camerawork force us to experience, viscerally, the terror and uncertainty of the refugees’ route from Turkey, by overloaded inflatable boat, to the Greek Island of Lesbos. It’s a journey that Sara and Yusra partly swim, in order to save the lives of their fellow passengers. This is fiercely powerful film-making that is slightly undermined by the banality of the by-numbers feelgood ending.
In cinemas now and on Netflix from 23 November
