Kurdish director of drowned refugee ‘Ailan’ film denied visa to US festivals

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish director of the short film titled ‘Ailan,’ named after the 3-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned off the coast of Turkey in 2015 and became a symbol of the migrant crisis, was denied an American visa to compete in three separate film festivals.

Jubrail Abubakir, a filmmaker from the Kurdistan Region, produced ‘Ailan’ to tell the story of Alan Kurdi, a Syrian Kurd who fled the war-torn country with his family in September 2015 but drowned along the dangerous smuggling route from Turkey to Europe. His photographed lifeless body washed ashore garnered international attention and spurred an outpour of sympathy for those fleeing war and destruction in Syria.

The film was selected to compete in over 26 festivals and has won 6 awards so far. Now that the film is to be screened at three different festivals in the US, difficulties in obtaining a US visa are preventing Abubakir from attending.

“I sent all my paperwork, along with the official invitations. Everything was going well, and then I was told they could not grant me the visa,” the director told Kurdistan 24. He added that the US Consulate in Erbil only told him they were not granting visas “at this time” when he asked for an explanation.

“I was fine with it, but seeing others easily get visas bothered me, to be honest,” Abubakir continued. He has been invited to several other film festivals in Italy, Germany, and India among other countries, and has never had an issue acquiring visas to represent Kurdistan and the story of Alan abroad.

Despite being sponsored by Knowledge University and having been formally invited, Abubakir will not be able to travel to the US and promote his film.

“I have a story to tell, the story of ‘Ailan,’ and now I cannot.”

Editing by John J. Catherine