Filmmaker Sally El Hosaini On Why She Decided To Make A Mighty Splash With ‘The Swimmers’ – Toronto Q&A
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Five days before filmmaker Sally El Hosaini (My Brother the Devil) was ready to declare “Action, background action” on the set of The Swimmers, the film fell apart due to the pandemic. “We just thought it was curtains for the film, which was heartbreaking,” the director recalled. “It just came to a halt, and there could be no promises of anything for anyone.”The film, which opened the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday night, had been set up at Working Title with backing from Focus Features.Toronto Film Festival 2022 Photo Gallery: Daniel Radcliffe And Weird Al Yankovic; ‘The Swimmers’, ‘On The Come Up’, ‘Handmaid’s Tale’, MoreIt already was a bit of a gamble before Covid reared its head.
The story of two sisters, Yusra and Sarah Mardini — who left war-torn Syria to make a perilous journey across the Aegean Sea to Eastern Europe, and then, by hook or by crook, to make it to the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Yusra hoped to participate as a swimmer — was not an easy sell.It’s a film with no stars, and half of its in Arabic.The shutdown added millions to the budget and, perhaps understandably, Focus Features did not feel able to stay onboard.However, Working Title’s co chairman, Eric Fellner, reached out to Netflix global film chief Scott Stuber to ask if he’d consider stepping into the breach. “I’ve got to genuinely big-up Scott,” Fellner told us, “because without his intervention, The Swimmers never would have happened.
It would have been difficult to get the film back on its feet.”Stuber asked Racheline Benveniste, Director of Original Film at Netflix, to collaborate with David Kosse, VP International Film at Netflix, on getting The Swimmers back into production.Toronto Film Festival: Deadline’s Complete Coverage“Sc
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