The Swimmers Screening

Date: 14 June 2024 / Time: 7:00 pm (GMT)

Trianon Cinema,

Kodrigktonos 21, Athens 104 34

Refugee Week Greece festival 2024 was launched in Athens on the 14th June with a screening of The Swimmers at Trianon cinema. Following the screening, we had a panel discussion and Q&A with Hassan Akkad, the film producer and award-winning director, and Christos Dimopoulos, director of Amnesty International, Greece.

This year’s theme of the festival was 'Our Home'. Refugee Week Greece is a vibrant cultural festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and authenticity of people having experienced forced migration. The festival began in 1998 in the UK and since then has taken place in 17 other countries, aligning each year with World Refugee Day on June 20th. This is the third consecutive year that the festival takes place in Greece, after two successful runs in 2023 and 2022.

About the movie

The Swimmers is based on the inspiring, true story of two sisters, Sara and Yusra Mardini, who left Syria in 2015 because of the civil war. The movie traces the sisters’ harrowing journey as refugees, traveling via Greece and putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use. The movie, which has attracted huge international interest, addresses the issues of war, displacement and the power of our relationships, dreams and resilience.

About Hassan Akkad

Hassan is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and human rights activist. He was

co-director of Netflix’s ‘Convergence’ and producer of two Netflix films ‘The Swimmers’ & ‘The Walk’. Hassan was part of the team that made ‘Exodus: Our Journey to Europe’ which won a BAFTA for Best Factual Series in 2017. Hassan’s memoir, Hope Not Fear, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2021.

About Christos Dimopoulos

Christos Dimopoulos is the director of Amnesty International Greece. He started his career in 2000 as a social worker. He has been active as an executive in the humanitarian sector for more than 20 years and has worked in the Norwegian Refugee Council, Doctors of the World and the National Centre for Social Solidarity.