Lies about film stars, fake charity claims and cashing in on a tragedy: the true story behind ‘Aylan Baby’
ATurkish director behind a movie about Alan Kurdi is claiming the profits from the film will go to Unicef, despite having no official affiliation with the UN children’s fund.
Omer Sarikaya’s latest film project, Aylan Baby, hit the headlines this year after a backlash over the use of Kurdi’s image in the poster.
The toddler became a symbol of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 after images showed his lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach.
Sarikaya announced that 1990s action star Steven Seagal would be involved in the film and it was supposed to have its premiere at the end of October. But at the time of writing, it has not been released.
Sarikaya initially promoted the film on social media with pictures of himself and Seagal together in Turkey, and pictures of Seagal arriving in Istanbul ran alongside global news stories of his involvement in Aylan Baby.
But The National has discovered that, as well as questionable claims of giving film profits to charity, several of the A-list actors Sarikaya said he was working with have never been attached to any of his movie projects.
Seagal’s representative, Dan Delts, told The National the actor was in Istanbul for humanitarian purposes and had no plans to make any movie in Turkey. Mr Delts also said Seagal had no plans to make a movie with Sarikaya and “absolutely no movie regarding Aylan Baby now or in the future”.
Sarikaya has claimed to be working with actors such as Mel Gibson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Sarikaya claims the producer of Aylan Baby, George Edde, was in Dubai this year with Seagal drumming up support. Edde later told The National he was with Seagal in Dubai for “humanitarian purposes” related to the film.
Sarikaya’s most recent film, Islamo-Phobia, allegedly starred Van Damme, with his face front and centre on the movie poster. But when we spoke to Van Damme, he said this was “fake news”.
Sarikaya said Islamo-Phobia had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. A representative for Cannes said the film screened as part of the Marche du Film, otherwise known as the “Cannes market”, where producers pay to put on screenings of films they are trying to sell to distributors.
Islamo-Phobia was never released, despite being listed as such on IMDb – the listing was changed to “pre-production” after The National approached Sarikaya on July 2.
When asked what charity would receive the profits from Aylan Baby, Sarikaya said “100 per cent Unicef”. He insisted he told the children’s fund about his intentions and said it was “very happy with that”.
But Unicef has warned Sarikaya against claiming to be affiliated with the fund. “Unicef does not permit any use of our name, brand and logo, as well as fundraising on our behalf, without permission,” a Unicef representative told The National.
Sarikaya has been involved in several projects from which he said all profits would go to charity. His film Famine had a long list of names attached at different times: DiCaprio, Farrell, Ronan and, most recently, Gibson.
Sarikaya publicly announced last year that Gibson was set to star in the film, alongside a picture of the filmmaker and Gibson at the Venice Film Festival in 2016. But when The National contacted Gibson’s publicist Alan Nierob this year, he insisted he had never heard of Sarikaya. Mr Nierob said neither he nor Gibson were ever attached to the project.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Mr Nierob said. The film has yet to be made.
Other charities Sarikaya has claimed to have been working with in his proposals, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies the UN Refugee Agency also say they are unaware of him.
When approached with these allegations, Sarikaya said Aylan Baby was not about Alan Kurdi but stories of refugees from “around the world”. He said the name “Aylan” was simply a generic name.
“Aylan is one of the symbols of the refugee crisis. It doesn’t matter where the baby came from, the baby is a baby and he doesn’t know nothing, he’s innocent. They killed angels,” he said. “He’s just a little subject and so many stories are in this movie.”
The one-minute trailer for Aylan Baby uses the footage of Kurdi’s body, face down on a beach, which in 2015 sparked an emotional reaction in Europe, pushing the EU to temporarily open its borders to Syrian refugees. An accompanying caption in the trailer reads: “Three years ago on 2 September 2015, threeyear-old Aylan Baby drowned crossing the Aegean Sea along with his five-year-old brother and mother.”
The trailer ends with an enlarged picture of Kurdi’s lifeless body, superimposed over an image of a meeting of the UN. Kurdi’s family have spoken out about the boy’s image being used to promote the film.
Sarikaya initially said Aylan Baby would have its world premiere in Istanbul and he would invite “all the world leaders”.
Later, he said it would have its premiere at the Antalya Film Festival on October 29.
Sarikaya confirmed this month that the film had not yet had its premiere.
Several of the A-list actors Sarikaya said he was working with have never been attached to any of his movie projects