Christchurch mosque attack survivor hasn't spoken to They Are Us producers despite featuring heavily in draft script

One survivor of the Christchurch mosque attack that filmmakers of the They Are Us movie announced they'd feature has never actually spoken to them.

Farid Ahmed, who is famous for forgiving the terrorist who killed his wife Husna on March 15, features heavily in the opening scene of the draft script that was leaked to Newshub. He hasn't given any permission to the movie's producers.

"I don't have any engagement in it. I do not have anything to gain from it and I do not know anything about it," Ahmed says.

The proposed script contains a graphic reconstruction of the March 15 terror attack, and Ahmed was even named in a press release about They Are Us.

Ahmed chose not to look at parts of the script relating to him and his wife, but it is a very detailed part of the 17 pages that recreates the terrorist attack.

"I don't want to get myself involved emotionally because I don't want to traumatise myself," he says.

Pressure is mounting for the movie, by New Zealand writer and director Andrew Niccol, to be pulled.

Maha Elmadani, whose father was killed, is calling directly on both Jacinda Ardern and actress Rose Byrne, who is set to play the Prime Minister, to act.

"The Prime Minister has a lot of influence and she's already come out and said that her story is not the one to be told. I think she needs to go beyond that and ask Rose Byrne to drop the role," she says.

Ardern says while she can't stop the film from being made, she has a message for its producers.

"Whilst I don't have the ability to stop any piece of television or any piece of [a] film being made, what I can ask is for those producers to listen," she says. "Listen to those who are most deeply affected."

For the victims of March 15 like Ahmed, the leaked script simply needs to be stopped.

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