Lena Dunham to adapt refugee survival story

Lena Dunham has been Lena Dunham has been  tapped to pen a sur vival story of a Syrian refugee by co-producers Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams.Dunham will adapt Melissa Fleming’s nonfiction ‘A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival’, Variety reported. The film will chronicle the true story of Doaa Al Zamel, a mother of two fleeing Egypt for Sweden by boat. Shipwrecked along the way, Al Zamel survived for days in open water holding two children in each arm with only the support of an inflatable water ring. Dunham took to Twitter, saying she was looking forward to the film. ‘Very lucky to have this job, to tell this story, to support this truth with these people,’ she said. But social media was quick to express displeasure at Dunham’s selection as screenwriter questioning how could the writer-actor accurately narrate the story of a Syrian refugee. One of the users appealed to two actors of colour, Riz Ahmed and Mindy Kaling, to use their influence to stop the project from moving forward with Dunham involved. “Can you guys please please voice a complaint? I don’t want Lena to tell my family’s story as a Syrian,” she wrote on Twitter. Another user tweeted: “What makes her think she can speak accurately about the refugee experience? Please stop this while you’re ahead of a disaster.” A tweeple called out the project for whitewashing. “Because clearly there’s no one who knows that demographic better than a spoiled, talentless, young, rich white girl. Yikes,” he wrote. A Syrian-Cuban author, Suzanne Samin asked the “Girls” co-creator if she had ever made donations to any Syrian refugee organisation. “… Please leave Syrian stories alone if you aren’t Syrian and especially if you are Lena Dunham. Thank you,” she said. “Just curious if you’ve at least done that before you profit off my people’s pain!” she added. To this, Dunham answered saying she was ‘donating every penny’ she made and will ‘share the receipts’, while adding she would ‘like to receive perspectives and engage in dialogue’ for the project. (PTI)