Family of drowned Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi outraged by film

Karwan Faidhi Dri

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Alan Kurdi, the 2-year-old boy whose drowning became the iconic image of the European refugee crisis, is to be commemorated in a film by Turkish director Omer Sarikaya. However, Kurdi’s father says the family was not consulted about the project.


The film, based on the 2018 book “The Boy on the Beach” by Alan’s aunt Tima Kurdi, has left surviving relatives distraught, said Alan’s father Abdullah.

“It is a young child but they want to revive him. I do not know how this is possible. His images really hurt me,” Abdullah told Rudaw TV on Friday.  

“They have not consulted me. The story is completely based on this book,” he said.

Abdullah, his wife Rehanna, and their two sons, Alan, 3, and Ghalib, 4, were trying to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece on September 2, 2015 when their smuggler’s boat sank off the Turkish coast. 


A photograph of Alan lying face down in the surf on a Turkish beach caused shock and revulsion worldwide and led to calls for European leaders to offer refugees safe and legal passage. 

Turkish director, Omer Sarikaya told Turkish state media agency Anadolu on Thursday he has already started filming “Baby Aylan” in Turkey’s Bodrum, Mugla province, near to where Alan’s body was found. 

“When this happened, I couldn’t sleep for a while. It was always on my mind,” Sarikaya, who is also wrote the script, told Anadolu. 

“I was thinking that ‘Hopefully, someone will shoot a film about it and send a message to the world’ but nobody has done it so far. I am doing it now,” he said. 

The movie is produced by George Edde and Bahattin Ozturk. 

“The greatest feature of the film is that all the income will go to humanitarian aid. None of the actors or actresses will be paid,” Sarikaya added. 

The film is expected to be completed by July 2 and to premiere on September 2.

American actors Steven Seagal and Mike Mitchell and German actress Wilma Elles will star in the movie. 

Alan’s father told Rudaw he plans to take legal action to halt the film’s production. 

“I will seek legal ways [to stop the production]. It will be good if they stop it. If not, I will go to Turkey and hire a lawyer to stop this. I cannot watch a movie where my son is depicted alive,” he said.

He also said his son’s name has been spelled incorrectly. “Alan is a Kurdish name,” he said.

Sarikaya says he did not seek permission from Alan’s family as his movie is not solely about the boy but about refugees in general.


Sarikaya shared several photographs from the set on his Instagram account, showing a man and woman with two children who play the role of Kurdi’s family. 

In February, a German migrant rescue ship was renamed “Alan Kurdi”. 

The ‘Professor Albrecht Penck’ ship was christened in a small ceremony in the port of Palma de Mallorca, attended by both Abdullah Kurdi and his sister Tima. 

Tima, who lives in Canada, is also upset by the unauthorized movie. 

“I’m really heartbroken right now … It’s unacceptable,” she told CBC on Friday. 

She confessed the family is unlikely to have the power to stop the movie, but said: “I’m trying to stop this by using my voice. It hurts me so much.”

She said the family has turned down multiple offers from movie producers to turn her book into a film.