Welsh-Egyptian director Sally El Hosaini will direct an upcoming biopic on Yusra Mardini, a Syrian refugee who, prior to her Olympic appearance in 2016, saved 18 other refugees from drowning in the Aegean Sea.
Connecting with her Egyptian roots, Sally El Hosaini utilizes her filmmaking talents to give voice and representation to new groups among British society.
Her directing, script-writing, and film research won her Most Promising Newcomer Award at the 2013 Evening Standard Film Awards, Best Screenplay at the 2013 Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, and a slew of other prizes and nominations.
Sally El Hosaini documents her real world
Straying from British period films, Sally El Hosaini commits herself to stylizing a realistic and contemporary brand of cinema. She comments that British period drama, such as Downton Abbey, “is a fantasy and doesn’t really relate to the reality of Britain, and I think there should be a space for diverse voices and other British stories to reach an audience internationally.”
One of her most famous films, My Brother the Devil, follows two Arab brothers fighting for survival among gang rule on the streets of Hackney. When one brother reveals himself as gay, the duo must reconcile their fears or risk the collapse of the family.
“I was frustrated with the way British Muslim youth were being portrayed in the media,” El Hosaini explains “I have lived on a council estate in Hackney for the last 10 years and I knew that kids near me were not like that. I just wanted to make an honest film about them.”
Watch the trailer here:
Combining Welsh, Egyptian, and British roots
Hoisani’s Egyptian father and Welsh mother met at a university of Liverpool. Soon, Sally was born in Swansea, a southern coastal in Whales. At a very young age, the family the moved to Egypt. She grew up mainly in Cairo.
“It was tough for my mum living in Egypt in the 1960s but she’s definitely a strong woman in our family,” El Hosaini says “At 16 she encouraged me to leave home and attend one of the United World Colleges based in South Wales.”
After attending the Atlantic College, she went on to study Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at Durham University.
El Hosaini dove head-first into these projects, exploring her Egyptian roots. But her early career working on Middle East documentaries also demonstrated how much more diverse British television could be.
“The way I was making documentaries for TV felt a bit formulaic. That made me realize that I wanted to go into much more depth. I found that you can be much more truthful in fiction,” she says.
Sally El Hosaini dives deep into “The Swimmers”
For her next big project, El Hosaini will direct The Swimmers. This upcoming documentary will follow the journey of Olympic swimmer and Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini.
Escaping Syria in 2015, Yusra Mardini and her sister treaded water for three hours to save a small dinghy boat of other refugees on their way to Greece. Finding her way to Berlin, Mardini earned a spot on the Olympics’ inaugural Refugee Team. She then competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics. This will be El Hosaini’s second feature film.
Learn more about Yusra Mardini’s inspiring story and El Hosaini’s upcoming documentary:
The Swimmers: The upcoming biopic of Olympic swimmer and refugee Yusra Mardini
