(dramatic music)
(water splashing)
(refugees chattering in foreign language)
- Sara.
- I was in the water, and the only thing
I can think about is how the salt was
on my neck, my eyes, my face. (Yusra gasping)
(refugees yelling in foreign language)
- I was just seeing the island
but never getting there. (waves lapping)
And I was really, really afraid that, if something happens,
they will pull me and my sister down
because they knew we were swimmers.
(waves lapping) (dramatic music continues)
- I was screaming in the water saying,
"Do not let her jump," because I thought,
if she would go in the water, she might die.
- [Sara] No.
(water splashing)
- And in that moment, I realized
that my sister is way stronger than I thought she is.
(water splashing) (sister breathing heavily)
(water splashing)
- The film's a bit of a Trojan horse
because, on one level, you can think,
"Oh, it's the sports movie."
And on the other side you think, "Oh, it's a refugee story."
But actually, for me, it was a love story between sisters.
(dramatic music continues)
- It was incredible to tell a story
that most cinema audiences don't get
the opportunity to see on film.
- I went to Berlin.
I met the real Yusra and Sara.
(partygoers clapping)
- Oh.
- Young people in that situation will always be young
and want to go clubbing and have a party.
If anything, when there is so much tragedy around,
you need to kind of let loose.
You need to (laughing) go out and dance.
(dramatic music continues)
They had (laughing) lives that were akin
to, you know, lives of people today
in Beirut, and Cairo, and Paris, and London.
(bus engine wheezing)
- If you didn't know any better,
they were college students from America on a trip,
and Yusra still has the Samsung
that she had on that journey.
(camera clicking)
There's photographs that Sally has replicated
almost exactly of Yusra and her red backpack.
Having that sort of information, I mean, was just wild.
(dramatic music continues)
- Those meetings and all the firsthand experience gets
filtered down into the story.
(sister yelling in foreign language)
- It was always important for us to be authentic
and then to be fair, it's to Sally credit
that she really started to push the idea
of, like, "Maybe two sisters is the way to go."
(sisters laughing)
- It was such a gift to find sisters
that were fluent native Arabic speakers from Lebanon
whose personalities were so matching
the real Yusra and Sara. (sisters laughing)
- The dynamic was very important between Manal and Natalie.
It's very, very similar to mine and Sara's.
- So, it showed us again
how close we were and how strong our relationship was.
(dramatic music continues)
- I did everything I had to do as a child.
I went to training.
I went to school. (slate clacking)
I tried to have a normal life, but there was war.
(mortar blasting) (sisters screaming)
(gunshots blasting)
(mortar blasting)
(water splashing)
And that's exactly what made us do this journey.
- I wanted the film to feel
like you were on the inside of the journey with them.
It was the opportunity to go beyond the news images,
but you're in the boat with them.
(baby crying) (water sloshing)
- This was a physically tough movie to make.
We'd put them out in a boat for real.
It's not CGI.
They really were on a dinghy for two days.
(waves lapping)
That is a sequence we're all particularly proud of
because it really drives up the terror.
And I think people sometimes forget
that behind the statistics, and the news stories,
and the headlines are real people and real families
who are making a choice.
- Every time we entered a border,
there was things that we had to deal with,
you know, dealing with hate and dealing with soldiers
that are turning you back.
The hardest part is
that you were not seen as a human anymore.
- One thing that everyone's always wondering about is,
"Why are they smiling after everything happened?"
Even if what happened was terrible,
still small bits of it were happy.
(dramatic music continues)
- I think that's what it is to be human is to laugh
in these situations, especially if you're with your sibling
going through this stuff together.
(pillow thudding) (friend grunting)
This inspirational story is (sister laughing)
about, you know, the triumph of the human spirit in a way.
(dramatic music continues)
(audience cheering) - In the end, I got this power
and voice to represent refugees around the world,
and then I realized that it's not about the medal.
It's about the message.
- Because so many people now are saying,
"I can feel my story," because it's not over.
It's still happening every day.
Myself and a lot of people who volunteer,
we spend time on the shores
or on the borders to support migrants.
- I think this movie will again put the conversation
on the table and say, "This is me.
This is a refugee."
(dramatic music continues)
- It's one story speaking
about a thousand other people's stories.
(dramatic music continues)
(fireworks blasting)
(audience cheering)
(dramatic music)