We Dare to Dream: London film premiere showcases Refugee Olympic Team stories

On a crisp cold festively-lit London evening, Cyrille Tchatchet II found himself at the cinema; yet it wasn’t any old Sunday night out for the Cameroon-born weightlifter.

He was one of the red-carpet stars at the premiere of We Dare to Dream, a documentary that follows displaced athletes from various regions on their pathway toward Tokyo 2020 as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

Tchatchet accompanied the documentary makers, Oscar-nominated director Waad al-Kateab, producers Joe Gebbia (Studio Gebbia, co-founder Airbnb), Bryn Mooser and Kathryn Everett (XTR Studios) and Joanna Natasegara (Violet Films), who were in turn supported by the likes of education activist Malala Yousafzai, and Harry Potter actors Emma Watson and Jason Isaacs, at the event in Leicester Square on Sunday 26 November. A Q&A session of the main protagonists hosted by presenter James Corden followed the screening. The film was introduced on screen by executive producer Angelina Jolie. 

The documentary follows a number of athletes whose sporting prowess facilitates opportunities for safety in host nations across the world after these young people have been forced to leave their families, homes and countries of birth to build new lives out of nothing.

Tchatchet's journey away from his homeland starts after he had competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but left the athletes' village fearing for his safety should he return home. The teenager found himself homeless in Brighton, on the UK's south coast, and at a low ebb.

Heading to a renowned suicide spot, a sign for a charity hotline, Samaritans, offered emotional support. He called the number, spoke to a volunteer, and was picked up by police. An asylum application began and Tchatchet was granted British citizenship in 2016. He now works as a mental health nurse emulating those who saved him, and is training hard for a second Olympic appearance at Paris 2024.

And that is just one athlete's story from We Dare to Dream.

Speaking to Olympics.com at the event, hosted in partnership with the Olympic Refuge Foundation – an NGO that supports the protection, development and thriving of displaced young people through sport worldwide – Tchatchet said: "I am very excited to be here tonight. I've watched the film a few times now and I always get emotional with the stories of myself and my team-mates from the Refugee Olympic Team.

"I'm pretty happy I've achieved the dream of competing at the Olympics, which was one of the biggest dreams I had. I carry the English and the British flag very high today and I'm honoured to do that.

"I can say that I was lucky because everyone's journey does not always end in a positive way. "

• We Dare to Dream | Olympic Refuge Foundation

A message of hope and togetherness

Oscar®-nominated director Waad al-Kateab, a refugee herself five years ago, also had bittersweet feelings about the night, which had the likes of Harry Potter actors Emma Watson and Jason Issacs in attendance.

"I'm over the moon, so happy, but emotional because I think that being here – it's an amazing night, we have a really big message, and we are getting this out tonight – but at the same time I can't get out of my head all the people who are left behind in this world in such painful circumstances and fear and grief as well.

"I really hope people around the world will look at this film and get a lot from it – a lot of hope, a lot of togetherness, and a lot of love for each other."

Two-time British Olympic medallist and reigning trampoline world champion Bryony Page supported the event after first coming across the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at its inaugural competition in Brazil.

"For me, my first real understanding on refugees competing at the Olympics was at my first Olympics in Rio," Page told Olympics.com. "They had a Rio Olympic Newspaper, which I was reading, and I got really emotionally touched by it and now it's really exciting to follow the stories of the athletes and I'm looking forward to seeing the film tonight."

It was in Rio that Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and producer of We Dare to Dream, also first came across the refugee athletes and decided that this was a story that needed to be told.

A keen sporstman himself, in which he thrives on pushing himself to the limits, "finding the edges of what I'm capable of athletically and physically", Gebbia recognises the power of sport in the world for good.

"Sport is a unifying activity, brings people together, whether you're on a team, whether you're a spectator or a fan," he told us. "I think sport is proven through the Olympics, of course, that it brings nations together, it brings individuals together for a common cause to really cheer people on who are pushing themselves to their limits."

Everybody has a story, says Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs

"People have no idea who refugees really are," says Isaacs, most famous for his role as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series but who also works with a number of refugee agencies including the Red Cross. "They don't see them as individuals. They don't recognise the terrible situations they've come from and the biblical journeys they've had to make to get to where they are, and so they lose their sense of compassion along the way.

"One of the amazing things about this documentary and the individuals in it are just that – everybody has a story, everybody has a dream.

"All refugees I meet are desperate not to be a drain on our resources but to contribute and make something of their lives and put such horror behind them. And so if we put faces, and names and stories to them, then maybe we can stop treating them like a problem."

We dare to dream.

• For more information on the We Dare to Dream movie see here.