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”.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Arrival to the cinema: 18:30
Welcomes: 18:45
Start of the screening: 19:00
Start of the discussion: 21:45
Location: Trianon cinema, Kodrigktonos 21
Language: English with simultaneous interpretation to Greek and Greek Sign Language.
For more information and Press Enquiries please contact
Ilirida Musaraj [
[email protected]] – Producer
+30 694 305 5958
