Sally El Hosaini, the Welsh Egyptian director behind My Brother The Devil (2013), has begun production on her next film, and it sounds like a must-see.
It’s called The Swimmers, and it’s the true story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini, the Syrian refugees who almost drowned getting to safety away from the war-torn country and made it all the way to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
El Hosaini garnered huge acclaim for her last film, which won the World Cinema prize at Sundance Film Festival that year, and got huge acclaim when it debuted at the Dubai International Film Festival in late 2012.
Two sisters from Lebanon are also set to play the sisters, Manal and Nathalie Issa.
Rounding out the cast are Ahmed Malek, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ali Suliman, Kinda Alloush, James Krishna Floyd, Elmi Rashid Elmi.
James Krishna Floyd previously starred in My Brother the Devil.
El Hosaini is writing the script along with Jack Throne, who wrote Netflix’s Enola Holmes, and cowrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with JK Rowling.
The film is currently filming in the UK in the UK, with production to move to Turkey and Belgium soon. The film will be out on Netflix globally in 2022.
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