‘We Dare to Dream’ Director Waad Al-Kateab and Producer Angelina Jolie Discuss Impact of Olympic Refugee Doc as Eurosport Acquires Streaming Rights (EXCLUSIVE)
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Discovery-owned Eurosport has acquired streaming rights in 54 countries to Olympic refugee documentary “We Dare to Dream” by Waad Al-Kateab, the Oscar-nominated Syrian director of “For Sama.”
“We Dare to Dream” is the story of the refugee Olympic team that competed at the 2020 games in Tokyo, which featured stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who swim, run and fight their way to safety in host nations across the world. It’s told through the personal prism of Al-Kateab while she is coming to terms with the reality that she can never return to Aleppo, where she shot “For Sama.” The doc premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and had an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run at New York City’s IFC Center in October.
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After the doc premiered at Tribeca, Angelina Jolie joined “We Dare to Dream” as an executive producer to help with its Oscar push. Five months later, John Legend also signed on to exec produce with his Get Lifted Film banner co-founders Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorious. Legend also wrote, composed and performed an original song for the doc, titled “Don’t Need to Sleep.”
Peacock acquired U.S. rights to “We Dare to Dream” earlier this month. Peacock and NBC are official U.S. broadcasters of the Olympics, while Eurosport is home of the Olympic Games in Europe.
Besides Eurosport play across Europe and beyond – the deal also includes some non-EU territories such as Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan – streaming availability of “We Dare to Dream” will now also comprise Discovery+ in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
“I’m so grateful to Eurosport for bringing this film to 54 countries across the world,” said Al-Kateab in a statement. “I hope people will now be able to understand how the world’s refugees, like me, are not the crisis but rather a result of several global crises from political violence to climate change that are making millions of refugees, like me, face unimaginable challenges.”
In her conversation with Jolie about “We Dare to Dream,” Al-Kateab notes that “the sports element is very important in the film; but it’s not about that. Even being refugees themselves, it was very important and played a big part, but [it] wasn’t about that at all. I think for me – what I really wanted people to take away from the film – is what comes after? What’s going to happen to these people after this experience?”
Jolie said that “what brings displaced people together is so different and so extraordinary” and points out that there are “110 million people in the world that understand what it is to be forced from their homeland and to live displaced.”
She continued, “I was very moved when I realized there was a refugee Olympic team, because to me it is a country in many ways.”
Watch the full conversation below.
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