Andreas Dresen (58) actually wanted to make a film about his son – but then he met his mother.
The Berlin director had his first encounters with Murat Kurnaz (39) in 2008. The Bremen native wrote his autobiography after five years in the American prison camp at Guantanamo. “The conversations were very deep and stirring,” recalls Dresen. But he was completely blown away by his mother, Rabiye, who was as resolute as she was funny.
The housewife found a lawyer and went all the way to Washington with him to petition George W. Bush and get her son released.
The comedienne Meltem Kaptan (41) took over her role. In preparation, she met the real Mother Kurnaz again and again. “It was love at first sight. What a great person, we had deep conversations, but what a laugh,” says Kaptan.
And even after the shooting, the contact didn’t break off. “We talk on the phone a lot, she’s a very impressive woman,” says Kaptan. In her culture there is “the loving overfunction of the mother,” says the German-Turkish Kaptan. And Kurnaz is a prime example of lion mother for them. “She grows beyond herself, she meets everything so fearlessly,” enthuses the comedian.
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At the Berlinale premiere, Mother Kurnaz appeared with director Dresen. You and your son already know the film. “They liked it,” reveals Dresen happily.
The Kurnaz case
A few weeks after the September 11 attacks, 19-year-old shipbuilder Murat Kurnaz (photo) flew to Karachi. By his own admission, he wanted to learn more about Islam in Pakistan. Kurnaz was born in Bremen but has Turkish citizenship.
In November 2001, he was arrested by the Pakistani police during a routine check and handed over to the US forces in Afghanistan.
He stayed in the American prison camp at Guantanamo for almost five years on unproven terrorism charges. Today he works as a social worker in Bremen.