--- title: Syrian Super Mario: Artist Depicts Mario as a Refugee description: A Syrian artist has depicted Mario, of the Nintendo game Super Mario Bros., as a refugee facing obstacles on his way to safety. canonical: https://time.com/4032496/syrian-super-mario-bros-refugee-migrant/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-12T15:56:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:24:39.079Z og:title: Artist Creates 'Syrian Super Mario' to Show the Hardship of Being a Refugee og:description: 'Syrian Super Mario' faces soldiers, dangerous waters, and violent smugglers og:url: https://time.com/4032496/syrian-super-mario-bros-refugee-migrant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Artist Creates 'Syrian Super Mario' to Show the Hardship of Being a Refugee twitter:description: 'Syrian Super Mario' faces soldiers, dangerous waters, and violent smugglers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Artist Creates 'Syrian Super Mario' to Show the Hardship of Being a Refugee  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 12, 2015 3:56 PM UTC  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 12, 2015 3:56 PM UTC Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011, more than 4 million Syrians have [sought refuge](http://time.com/4026380/europe-migrant-crisis-questions-refugees/) in other countries, and stories of their arduous, and often perilous, journeys to Europe have garnered escalating international attention. To show the challenges faced by Syrian refugees, a Syrian artist named Samir al-Mutfi has reimagined the Super Mario Bros. video game, which [turns 30](http://time.com/4020798/super-mario-bros-evolution/) this week, as a dangerous journey over borders and across seas. “Syrian Super Mario” grabs his suitcase, withdraws his savings and attempts to flee to safety. Along the way to a refugee camp, he faces armed soldiers who solicit bribes, dangerous waters and violent smugglers. The 8-bit obstacles Syrian Mario faces are, of course, often deadly in real life. Earlier this week, [images](http://time.com/4022765/aylan-kurdi-photo/) of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy offered a stark reminder of the suffering many families have faced. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4032496/syrian-super-mario-bros-refugee-migrant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4032496/syrian-super-mario-bros-refugee-migrant/"},"headline":"Artist Creates 'Syrian Super Mario' to Show the Hardship of Being a Refugee","datePublished":"2015-09-12T15:56:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:24:39.079Z","description":"'Syrian Super Mario' faces soldiers, dangerous waters, and violent smugglers","url":"https://time.com/4032496/syrian-super-mario-bros-refugee-migrant/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Video Games","viral","Refugee crisis"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4032496/syrian-super-mario-bros-refugee-migrant/","name":"Artist Creates 'Syrian Super Mario' to Show the Hardship of Being a Refugee"}}]}] ```