Lena Dunham is writing a new movie about a Syrian refugee’s fight for survival.
The ‘Girls’ creator has been hired to adapt Melissa Fleming’s book ‘A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival’ which tells the story of Doaa Al Zamel’s life.
Doaa leaves fleeing war-ravaged Syria with her two young children to Egypt and there she falls in love with former Free Syrian Army fighter Bassem but as the political situation becomes more unstable together the couple makes the decision to start a new life together in Europe.
However, after four days at sea, the boat is shipwrecked and Doaa must fight to keep herself and her children alive whilst clinging to an inflatable.
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot companies are co-producing the film and it will be distributed by Paramount Pictures and Amblin. Arif Hussein will serve as executive producer.
The announcement comes just days after Lena announced she has been sober for six months after “misusing” anti-anxiety medication for three years.
The 32-year-old writer-and-actress began taking Klonopin when she was unable to participate in daily activities and her anxiety was hindering her work, and she found the drug made her feel “like the person [she] was supposed to be”.
Speaking to Dax Shepard on his podcast ‘Armchair Expert’, she said: “If I look back, there were a solid three years where I was, to put it lightly, misusing benzos, even though it was all quote unquote doctor prescribed … I’ve been sober for six months. My particular passion was Klonopin. I was having crazy anxiety and having to show up for things that I didn’t feel equipped to show up for. But I know I need to do it, and when I take a Klonopin, I can do it. [It made me] feel like the person I was supposed to be. It was like suddenly I felt like the part of me that I knew was there was freed up to do her thing.”
