The Prime Minister of New Zealand has already distanced herself from Andrew Niccol's 'They Are Us' biopic about the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque mass shootings.

Plans for a film on New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the horrific Christchurch mosque shootings have been met with criticism in the country and accusations of “white saviorism.”.

The film, written and directed by Kiwi filmmaker Andrew Niccol, is set to star Rose Byrne as Ardern and takes place in March 2019, in the days after a deadly terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch by a white supremacist in which 51 people were murdered.

As news of the film reached New Zealand, local media reported on a growing backlash with critics uncomfortable with the biopic’s focus on Ardern over Muslims in Christchurch still grieving after the attack.

In a statement to the NZ Herald, Christchurch Muslim Association spokesperson Abdigani Ali​ said: “Although recognition of our Prime Minister for her response to attacks is well deserved, we question the timing and whether a movie is appropriate right now?”

On Twitter, Mohamed Hassan, an award-winning New Zealand journalist and poet and host of The Guest House — a podcast that explores how Muslims made sense of the Christchurch mosque attacks — tweeted that the filmmakers did not have the right to “turn this into a White Saviour narrative.”

In a longer and much-discussed opinion piece for the NZ Herald, Hassan writes, “Even worse, that the film has chosen to focus not on the tragedy and the victims, but instead on the prime minister and the rest of the country and their response.”