Screening of “The Swimmers” and discussion with the film producer, Hassan Akkad and director of Amnesty International Greece, Christos Dimopoulos
We invite you on Friday 14th of June to the launch event of this year’s Refugee Week Greece festival in Athens, taking place from 17th June up until 23 June. This year’s theme of the festival is “Our Home”.
Refugee Week Greece is a vibrant cultural festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and authenticity of people having experienced forced migration. The festival began in 1998 in the UK and since then has taken place in 17 other countries, aligning each year with World Refugee Day on June 20th. This is the third consecutive year that the festival takes place in Greece, after two successful runs in 2023 and 2022.
The festival will be launched in Athens on the 14th June with a screening of ‘The Swimmers’ at Trianon cinema. Following the screening, there will be a discussion and Q&A with Hassan Akkad, the film producer and award-winning director, and Christos Dimopoulos, director of Amnesty International, Greece.
About the movie
“The Swimmers” is based on the inspiring, true story of two sisters, Sara and Yusra Mardini, who left Syria in 2015 because of the civil war. The movie traces the sisters’ harrowing journey as refugees, traveling via Greece and putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use. The movie, which has attracted huge international interest, addresses the issues of war, displacement and the power of our relationships, dreams and resilience.
About Hassan Akkad
Hassan is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and human rights activist. He was
co-director of Netflix’s ‘Convergence’ and producer of two Netflix films ‘The Swimmers’ & ‘The Walk’. Hassan was part of the team that made ‘Exodus: Our Journey to Europe’ which won a BAFTA for Best Factual Series in 2017. Hassan’s memoir, Hope Not Fear, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2021.
About Christos Dimopoulos
Christos Dimopoulos is the director of Amnesty International Greece. He started his career in 2000 as a social worker. He has been active as an executive in the humanitarian sector for more than 20 years and has worked in the Norwegian Refugee Council, Doctors of the World and the National Centre for Social Solidarity.
The full programme of Refugee Week Greece is going to be announced briefly
Information for the event
Arrival to the cinema: 18:30
Welcomes: 18:45
Start of the screening: 19:00
Start of the discussion: 21:45
Location: Trianon cinema, Kodigktonos 21
Language: English with simultaneous interpretation to Greek and Greek Sign Language
For more information and Press Enquiries please contact Dina Ntziora – Senior Producer
refugeeweekgreece@gmail.com +30 698 30 50 292
Tickets info
Book your free tickets here.
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