ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
In the span of 3 years, Sarah Mardini goes from champion swimmer to refugee to humanitarian to accused criminal mastermind. But her own struggle to define herself will determine what she ultimately becomes.

SYNOPSIS
I am Sarah follows 24-year old Sarah Mardini during a critical year of her life. At 19, she was already famous—she fled Syria in 2015, and when the motor of the boat she escaped on failed on the sea crossing to Greece, Sarah used her skills as a competitive swimmer to bring the boat to safety. Her journey made headlines around the world.

Four years later, after volunteering to save refugees on the same journey, she’s been accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise that includes “international espionage and “people smuggling.” If convicted, she faces decades in prison and the end of her humanitarian dreams.

At its core, “I Am Sarah” explores the topic of becoming a young woman in today’s morally complex, globalized world. Yet the background to Sarah Mardini’s current circumstances—a rescue swimmer who spent 106 days in Greek prison for saving lives at sea—also enables discussions around the wider topic of the criminalization of solidarity across Europe. Sarah is driven by the impulse to do what feels right, regardless of the laws or political climate of the moment.

As her sister Yusra trains for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and a dramatized fiction film of their journey to Greece is underway, Sarah is under immense pressure to answer the question “What will Sarah do next?” while simultaneously coping with residual trauma from her past, trying to start her own NGO and attempting to blend in with Berlin’s techno-loving hedonist youth.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Charly Feldman
PRODUCER Daniel Druhora, Anna Von Dziembowski