Vindication Swim dives into the inspirational true story of Mercedes Gleitze, who in 1927 became the first European woman to swim the English Channel. The film depicts Mercedes’ upstream struggle in overcoming both the cold waters of the English Channel and oppressive society of 1920s England. However, when a rival comes forward claiming to have accomplished the same feat, Mercedes is forced into a battle to retain her record and her legacy.
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Elliott Hasler is an award winning British film director and screenwriter, best known for his professional feature debut, ‘Vindication Swim‘. The film, which depicts the inspirational true story of the first British woman to swim the English, took four years to make with all the swimming sequences shot in the English Channel without the use of tanks, green screens or body doubles. ‘Vindication Swim‘ released theatrically in the UK in spring 2024, breaking the top 20 at the UK box office and was hailed by critics as “a truly epic independent film on a scale never seen before” (The Language of Film).
Hasler’s passion for filmmaking began at a young age, with the production of ‘WWII: The Long Road Home’. Made whilst at school and completed in 2017 when Hasler was just 16 years old, the film garnered praise from New York critic Graham Fuller who described the film as “a miracle achievement for a schoolboy director” (Culture Trip).
That same year Hasler founded the UK based independent film company, Relsah Films. Before pursuing ‘Vindication Swim‘, Hasler developed his directing and writing style further by making a series of short films, including ‘To Hunt a Tiger‘, which was shot in Sri Lanka at the same locations as David Lean’s ‘The Bridge on the River Kawi‘. ‘To Hunt a Tiger‘ premiered in July 2019 at Soneva Jani’s over-water cinema in the Maldives.
