SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The cast and makers of Netflix’s war-action movie “Mosul” have received death threats from Islamic State (ISIS) militants in the wake of the film’s success on the streaming platform, according to an actor.
Actor Suhail Dabbach and producers Joe and Anthony Russo opened up about the seriousness of the situation during an interview with online news site Deadline.
Dabbach, who portrayed the role of Colonel Jasem in the film, told Deadline that he received threats from ISIS as soon as he posted on social media that the move was “going to come out”.
“They put on a lot of videos and bad words. Like, they have said, now we know you, and you have to watch yourself. Every day, touch your head to make sure it is still on. They said, ‘We know where you live and we will reach you,'” Deadline quoted Dabbach, as saying during the interview published on January 13.
The film, released in November last year, tells the story of the Nineveh SWAT Team trying to save two police officers from the militant group. The team inducts one of the police officers in their group as they try to complete their mission.
Mosul, written and directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan, was a major success upon premier, earning an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and becoming one of the most-watched films in Europe and the Middle East, according to British internet media company UNILAD.
Dabbach’s family had received similar scary threats, according to Deadline.
His co-star Adam Besa, who plays the policeman who gets drafted into the SWAT team, watched his Instagram page get wiped clean and he had been threatened on WhatsApp, Deadline said.
“It was certainly an unnerving experience for the actors,” Deadline quoted Joe Russo as saying.
“It’s never a comfortable feeling to have your privacy violated, and it’s terrifying to receive death threats from anonymous sources. We feel it has been handled expertly by Netflix and by our own security team,” he said.
Film producer Anthony Russo told Deadline that they had treated the situation “very seriously” and that they knew the movie was “potentially dangerous anyone involved”.
“We took the highest security measures we could think of and we were familiar with that process after working on the Marvel movies. This was a whole new level in terms of secrecy,” Russo said.
