The entertainment industry and wider society are only interested in glorifying non-Muslims, says a Muslim community advocate who has spoken out following the announcement of the film They Are Us.
The movie They Are Us is set to follow Ardern's response in the wake of the attack at Al Noor and Linwood mosques in which 51 people were murdered.
It has caused outrage since its announcement on Friday. Among the criticisms are that it's too soon, the victims and Muslim community weren't adequately consulted, and that it will perpetuate the 'white saviour' narrative by putting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the centre.
While first reading about They Are Us, Muslim community advocate Guled Mire thought it was "satire".
"It obviously became apparent that this was not satire," he explains. "It came as a shock to many of us, not just myself but many other members I have spoken to of the Muslim community in Christchurch."
Mire says that while the pitch was shocking, he doesn't think anyone would have "ruled out"an idea like this being "realistically proposed". In the wake of the attack, he says Kiwis and the rest of the world were all focussed on Ardern's response.
"While we were shocked, I don't think anyone could rule it out because that's what the rest of the world told us to focus on.
"That's what everybody focused on when March 15 actually happened, even in those initial weeks, that's what New Zealanders focused on."
He says the pitch is exemplary of a wider issue with whitewashing in the entertainment industry: "It represents an entertainment and media industry that is really only interested in glorifying non-Muslims in a tragedy that has been impacted the most and directly by Muslims themselves."
Mire says the film is "distasteful" and the Muslim community would rather the stories of those actually impacted be told.
"They [Muslims] want the bravery, the inspiration, just the heroes, the actual real martyrs of those terrorist attack stories to be told when the time is right and obviously in an appropriately fitting manner."
Islamic Women's Council spokesperson Anjum Rahman says "the feeling is universal".
She says the story of March 15 "needs to be told in a way that centres the people that were directly impacted".
"It needs to feature the fact that this was a white supremacist attack. That was not even mentioned by its producer or the director.
"It's like you're trying to hide the reality of what happened just to try and have an inspirational story and it's just not acceptable. That story needs to be told very sensitively and it needs to centre those that were affected."
A petition by the National Islamic Youth Association (NIYA) to stop the film's production has been signed more than 21,000 times.
NIYA says the film "sidelines the victims and survivors and instead centres the response of a white woman".
"The film centres white voices and therefore will continue to white-wash the horrific violence perpetrated against Muslim communities."
Ardern has since released a statement saying there were "plenty of stories from March 15 that could be told" but she doesn't consider hers to be one of them.
She added she "had nothing to do with the film in any form and wasn't consulted on it".
The film is expected to be shot in New Zealand, and written and directed by Kiwi film veteran Andrew Niccol, the brains behind dystopian classics Gattaca and The Truman Show.
