Really good film about two young Syrian women who flee to Europe via the Istambul-Aegean route...scary scenes of the sea crossing in a deflating rubber boat with a faulty motor, and then having to deal with crooked and violent people smugglers. The two were champion swimmers, and the tale end of the film turns a bit into a sporting triumph movie - the younger one gets to swim in the Rio Olympic games as part of a refugee team, and that's not as interesting as the rest but sort of a come-down from the earlier tension.
I was struck by how normal the family's Damascus life was - they really were people like us, not insurgents or Islamists, absolutely the opposite. Early in the film the girls are groped by a soldier who stops their bus at a checkpoint, and I wondered whether the family might actually have been regime supporters...not that it matters, and not that everyone either is or isn't, but it might have fleshed out their background.
Anyway, a good film - one of the best I've seen on Netflix for a while.
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