A film about the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people died, is to be directed by Egyptian film-maker and academic Moez Masoud.

According to Variety the film’s title will be Hello, Brother, the words spoken by 71-year-old victim Hati Mohammed Daoud Nabi, who opened the door to the gunman of Al Noor mosque, where 42 people died. The central characters are “a family facing death and destruction in Afghanistan who escape with their lives”.

Masoud announced the film at the Cannes, where producing company Acamedia is looking for backers. Masoud said: “In Christchurch, on 15 March, the world witnessed an unspeakable crime against humanity. The story that Hello, Brother will bring to audiences is just one step in the healing process, so that we might all better understand each other, and the root causes of hatred, racism, supremacy and terrorism.”

Previously, Masoud was one of the producers of Clash, directed by Mohamed Diab, a study of a disparate group confined in a single police van in the aftermath of protests against Egypt’s then president Mohamed Morsi; it was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the 2016 Cannes film festival and gained a string of admiring reviews, including from the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw.

Outside film-making, Masoud is a prolific writer and activist, currently at No 31 in the Muslim 5oo list of influential people. He added that he wanted to “bring people all over the world together to discuss that day and continue a positive dialogue for a future based on genuine mutual understanding”.



