Netflix has dropped the official teaser trailer for The Swimmers ahead of its premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and it’s an emotional one.
From My Brother the Devil director Sally El Hosaini, the film follows the true story of Syrian swimmers Yusra and Sarah Mardini (played by Manal and Nathalie Issa), sisters who swam as members of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The Mardinis escaped Syria in 2015 as refugees during the civil war, and the film will follow their lives through childhood training with their father (Ali Suliman), through their perilous journey out of the country, to Turkey, across the Mediterranean with their cousin (Ahmed Malek), and through to their Olympic debut.
Enola Holmes scribe Jack Jack Thorne co-wrote the screenplay with El Hosaini, and the cast also includes Ahmed Malek, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ali Suliman, Kinda Alloush, James Krishna Floyd, and Elmi Rashid Elmi.
The Swimmers will premiere at TIFF in early September before hitting Netflix at a date to be announced.