AS CHANNEL 4 sets tongues wagging over its Famine-based comedy Hungry, the blight in Ireland’s history is set for a very different screen adaptation.
A Turkish scriptwriter, Omer Sarikaya, has developed a story which is set for the big screens – highlighting a relatively unknown historic link between Turkey and Ireland.
Famine tells the story of an Irish physician working for an Ottoman Sultan in Famine times, who begged his employer to provide much-needed aid to the Irish.
After his promised £10,000 was cut to £1,000 – so as not to overshadow Queen Victoria’s £2,000 donation – the Irish physician sent three shiploads of grain to the Co. Louth town of Drogheda, in utmost secrecy.
To this day the Turkish star and crescent appear on the Drogheda town crest.
Aidan Whelan is executive producer for the project.
“It deals with the humanitarian perspective of the Famine,” he explains. “It’s dealt with very delicately and highlights this relatively unknown connection between Ireland and Turkey, which is great.”
The story was important to the project, which will see much of its proceeds going to charity. UNICEF will be among the benefactors but one of the most important things to come out of the project will be awareness, according to Whelan.
“When I was growing up, I heard the Famine was all about a problem with the potatoes – and that’s what I believed,” he said. “But it’s much more than that. This will focus on the humanitarian perspective – the hunger, the starvation.”
The difference, Whelan believes, between this production and Channel 4’s sitcom, which is currently in early development stages, is the approach to how the viewer will see the Famine.
“In my own opinion it’s about a period of bereavement,” he said. “I don’t think the Irish have grieved for the Famine, we don’t know enough about it. The likes of Schindler’s List and Titanic – they’re tragic stories but so much is known about them and these films are so human.”
The film, Omer, Aidan and crew hope, will enlighten audiences about the plight of the Irish more than 160 years ago.
Famine is set to be shot in June 2015 over a two month period.
