It was in July that I texted Manal Issa, a personal friend and colleague of mine to congratulate her on the news of The Swimmers, Netflix’s real-life chronicle of how Syrian refugee Yusra ...

The actress, who plays a migrant who flees Syria for Europe in the film, expressed regret about participating in the project. Many cinephiles had high expectations for “The Swimmers,” Sally El ...

By Etan Vlessing Canada Bureau Chief In Netflix’s The Swimmers, Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa — Lebanese actors and sisters in real life — play the roles of Yusra and Sara Mardini ...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SWIMMERS") MANAL ISSA: (As Sara) By the way, it's not a dinner. It's your surprise birthday party. NATHALIE ISSA: (As Yusra) I hate you. M ISSA: (As Sara) Just don't ruin ...

The Gist: In 2015, sisters Yusra (Nathalie Issa) and Sara (Manal Issa) Mardini are competitive swimmers in Syria as the country collapses into civil war. They see the writing on the wall and start ...

Because, unlike many films touching on refugees, or even the Middle East for that matter, The Swimmers shows the sisters — played by real-life Lebanese sisters Nathalie Issa (Yusra) and Manal ...

The Mardini sisters are portrayed by real-life Lebanese sisters Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa. In an interview with Cinema Daily US, Nathalie (who plays Yusra) revealed that Manal originally ...

Yusra (Nathalie Issa) and Sara (Manal Issa — the actresses are sisters, too), trained as competitive swimmers by their father (Ali Suliman), are shown living in 2015 in a Syria where death can ...

Film producers were lining up in 2016 to secure rights to the life story of professional swimmers Yusra and Sara Mardini, but the sisters turned down multiple offers. The siblings were known for ...

It stars real-life sisters Nathalie and Manal Issa as Yusra and Sara, respectively, and follows their characters on their arduous journey from Syria to Europe and the dangers they face as refugees.

In Subrin’s film, three actresses — Manal Issa, Aïssa Maïga and Isabel Sandoval — progressively interpret the text of Schneider’s interview throughout the 25-minute piece, with Issa strictly ...

"Manal Issa" is a sequel to Elisabeth Subrin's "The Listening Tapes" culled from hours of conversations between Elisabeth in the U.S. and Manal in Lebanon. It intimately considers the role of the ...