Swim across the sea

The movie “Swimmers”

In order to sensibilize young people to the problems faced by migrants and refugees, we launched a series of film screenings. One of them was the film Swimmers at the School of Economics in Bihać. We accompanied it with a literary competition for the best film review. Below is the winning text.

The beginning of the film is located in the capital of Syria, which is Damascus.

Girls Yusra and Sara live with their parents and younger sister Shahid.

Yusra and Sara have been swimmers since childhood, and their coach is their father, but Yusra was always much better at swimming as well from Sara.

It is the year 2015, and the war continues in the area around Syria, more and more people are dying every day.

Sara and Yusra are leaving for Germany with their cousin Nazir.

They arrive in Turkey by plane and spend a few days there until they find transport to continue.

In Turkey, Nazir finds a man who promises to lead them to Hungary.

Halfway, he leaves them at sea, in a patched-up boat.

There, everyone was left to their own devices, Sara and Yusra got out of the boat and swam across the Greek Sea.

After about two days they arrive in the city of Lesbos in Europe.

They are looking for water, but the man refuses them and says that they are refugees, but they find water at a fountain, then they go further looking for food and clothes to buy.

Halfway there, a man meets them, saying that he will take them to Hungary, but he takes their money and leaves it halfway times, and are left to fend for themselves in the forest.

A girl from Serbia finds them in the forest and offers a car ride, but they are followed by the police, but they still get close Hungarian border.

They wait for night to fall and try to cross the border…they manage to cross it, and Yusra and Nazir wait for Sara to arrive, and then she also arrives the next morning… They arrive in Berlin by bus and they are all placed in hangars where they spend 2 months.

Coach Sven finds accommodation for Yusra and Sara.Sara returns to Lesbos and Yusra goes with Sven to Rio for the 2016 Olympics.Sara was arrested for “smuggling” refugees in Lesvos, and if convicted, she faces 20 years in prison.In 2020, Yusra represented the refugee team at the Olympics in Tokyo.Sara’s and Yusra’s parents and younger sister moved to Berlin a few years later and live there.  My review of the film:No matter what anyone said to us, doubted us, or humiliated us based on our nationality, colorskin, of our dream.. we should not pay attention to it. I should believe in myself and my dreams. Just like Yusrawho swam the Greek Sea to come to Germany and realize her dream, for us the Greek Sea shouldbe our hope and faith in our dreams.No matter how small we are in someone else’s eyes, we should be huge in our own and not be afraid of judgmentirrelevant persons.I would recommend everyone to watch the movie “Swimmers”, because it will move everyone to tears…