Physical & Mental Entrapment

 Refugee camps are viewed as an escape from your life. They are built to help people fleeing from a troubled situation, but as we see in The Swimmers, a refugee camp can be another type of imprisonment. If they want to leave to try and make something of themselves, they get no support from the government and are in their own which we see when the sisters ask if they can leave.


This is not only a theme present in the movie but in real life as well. In fact, approximately one fifth of all people residing inside refugee camps say they are trapped according to a study by The United Nations. 


This feeling of imprison can also be expressed through a mental standpoint. Sara in the movie attempts to restart her swimming career after arriving in Germany. Once they meet Sven, they both resume swimming but Sara feels like she doesn’t belong, like it isn’t her calling. This is not only because she feels that she is needed to help immigrants cross into Europe, but actually is also due to her father. Your probably like “what, how!?!” but her father never fully believed in her as a swimmer. Growing up, she was always viewed as worse than her sister and over time she started to believe it. Even once she escaped her father, she didn’t believe she was good enough so she skipped lessons and skipped again and again.


Refugee camps are built to help everyone but not everyone gets the help they specifically need, similarly to how Sara never gets the support she so desperately wants from her father.


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