Nearly four years have passed since Coquitlam’s Tima Kurdi stepped in front of television cameras to talk about her family members who drowned while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.
But today, the image of her nephew Alan, lying dead on a Turkish beach continues to haunt her.
At the time the photo of the dark-haired boy wearing a red shirt and blue pants shocked the world and galvanized the Canadian government to take more Syrian refugees.
But today, a version of that image is being used to promote a film Aylan Baby, a movie about the refugee crisis. And Kurdi is upset that she can’t do anything to stop the film or the portrayal of her family’s tragedy.
“It’s disrespect for my family, it hurts my brother, it brought him back to the memories of his family," Kurdi told The Tri-City News. "He said ‘How am I going to see my kids or my family who are dead coming alive in front of my eyes?’”
Kurdi said she and her brother, Abdullah, whose family died in the aborted crossing were horrified to learn of the movie. They don’t want to have anything to do with the project, she said, even though writer director Omer Sarikaya says it’s a non-profit venture to raise awareness about the plight of refugees.
In an interview Thursday with The Tri-City News, Sarikaya said he’s partway through filming Aylan Baby in Bodrum, Turkey, where city officials have put up the actors in a hotel to support the effort.
“All net profit from this will go to refugees,” said Sarikaya, who said he plans to give net revenues to UNICEF and would like to give some money as well as the Kurdi family, whose Alan and Ghalib Kurdi Foundation collects donations for child refugees.
Actor Steven Seagal makes a cameo appearance in the beginning of the film pleading for more action for refugees, according to Sarikaya.
According to a Turkish news outlet Daily Sabah, Seagal was invited to Turkey by the Turkish American Business Association-American Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, which is the film’s main sponsor.
Sarikaya, who is also Kurdish, said the Kurdi tragedy brought him to tears when he first heard about it and he is making the movie now because there are still thousands of refugees who live in difficult circumstances since fleeing the Syrian conflict and are still willing to make the perilous trip across the Aegean Sea.
“The movie is about the whole world’s refugees. It’s a message to the world. It’s about five different families because there are still many refugees in Bodrum, they are waiting to go.”
And while he said he feels terrible about the Kurdi family tragedy, it’s the image of the little boy on the beach that first got the world’s attention.
“I respect the family very, very much and I’m very sad about those families who lost their children and their life, and this is not their fault, this is the world’s fault,” he said.
Still, a move trailer replicates the scene of the boy’s lifeless body washed up on the beach, with actors playing the role of the three-year-old boy and the official who found him.
Sarikaya said that was an early promotional video and he will be doing another trailer with scenes from the movie.
While the story of the Kurdi family has receded into the background as other stories grip the Canadian public, the plight of refugees is still a big story in Europe, and in particular Turkey, where the issue is still very much alive. That nation remains host to millions of refugees from Syria and is a major transit point for people trying to reach Europe. As recently as June, twelve people drowned traveling in an unsafe boat between Bodrum and Kos, according to RTE, an Irish news organization.
Sarikaya said everyone in the movie is volunteering their time for the film because they are concerned about refugees and want the world to take ownership of the problem.
“This is not a Turkish movie, it’s not an Arabic movie, it’s a world movie, it’s a whole refugees movie. And my goal is bringing this movie to the most prestigious world movie theatres,” he said.
As for Kurdi, who continues to advocate for refugees, especially children, through the foundation and her book The Boy on the Beach, knowing her family’s story will be recreated in an unauthorized retelling is painful.
“I hope I can tell my message to the people who can hear my voice. If the law and the world allows anybody to use your family and just do it without your permission, then this law needs to change.”
