Momentary champion The most well-known refugee and humanitarian in Europe is the Syrian swimmer Sara Mardini, but she is also a “criminal genius.” Sara is awaiting trial and might receive a 25-year jail term as her sister participates in swimming at the Olympics.
Sara was well-known at the age of 20. Together with her younger sister Yusra, she left Syria in 2015. Sarah and Yusra dove into the water after their boat capsized as they were travelling across the ocean to Greece. The elite swimming sisters pulled the boat to safety. Their voyage, which garnered international attention, is fictionalised in the Netflix film The Swimmers. After the fictionalised drama concludes, our tale starts. In August 2018, after three years of saving migrants on the same voyage that made her famous, Sara is unexpectedly detained by Greek police and charged with “international espionage and people smuggling.”
She may spend up to 25 years in prison and have her humanitarian career cut short if found guilty. She leads a bizarre life in Berlin while waiting for news of the trial and being barred from Lesbos. She tries to rekindle her relationship with her family as Yusra pursues their common ambition of competing in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics by training during the day at a liberal arts college and running away to techno clubs at night. The film, which was made over the course of three years, chronicles Sara’s quest for justice and self-discovery, and it captures the largest change in Europe over the last ten years: from being a society that welcomed immigrants to one unfriendly to those who dare save drowning people from the water.
The movie is made by DOCDAYS Productions and Safe Passage in partnership with ARTE, SWR, and a co-production. It is supported by the Malik Bendjelloul Memorial Fund and MOIN Filmstiftung. Antje Boehmert, Anna von Dziembowska, Daniel Druhora, and Drake Burnette are executive producers. Simone Reuter, Bernd Seidl, and Gudrun Hanke-El Ghomri serve as SWR’s commissioning editors.
In March 2023, Mindjazz Pictures will launch a statewide theatrical release in Germany, with a premiere in Hamburg.
Feldman said: “Our documentary begins when the Netflix drama ends. Sara’s journey from refugee to humanitarian and accused criminal marks a major shift in attitudes towards refugees and those who help them. It was vital for Sara and our team to put the issue in the spotlight, and so began a layered and intimate portrait of the impact that criminalizing humanitarians has on a deeply personal level.”
Anna von Dziembowska of Safe Passage said: “When I heard about Sara’s arrest in the summer of 2018, I called Daniel Druhora, a friend of Sara’s, to ask how I could help. He said ‘We are filmmakers, let’s make a film.’ And so we did.”
Antje Boehmert of DOCDAYS Productions said: “When I got to know the project in 2019 and was invited to this co-production, I didn’t hesitate for a second. The film addresses so many issues that we have to negotiate as a society.”
Elina Krewitz of New Docs added: “We are thrilled to have added “Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini” to our line-up. We have worked with DOCDAYS Productions in the past and we look forward to continuing this fruitful relationship with Charly Wai Feldman’s bigger-than-life story about the Syrian Olympic swimmer Sara Mardini who came to Germany as a refugee in 2015. We started pitching the documentary to festival programmers at the IDFA and hope for a world premiere in the first half of 2023.”
