Hassan Blasim (born 1973) is an

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

i-born film director and literary author, who writes in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. Following his exile in Finland, he has been a citizen of

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Life and career

Blasim left Iraq in 2000 to escape persecution for his films, including ''The Wounded Camera'', filmed in the

Kurd Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

ish area in northern Iraq and dealing with the forced migration of Kurds by

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

's regime. After travelling in Europe for four years, he settled in Finland in 2004, where he was granted asylum. Blasim made four short films for the Finnish broadcasting company

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

. His short story collection ''The Madman of Freedom Square'' was long-listed for the ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010. A selection of his stories was published as ''The Corpse Exhibition'' by Penguin US in 2014. It won a number of awards, including one out of four winners in the

English Pen Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associa ...

's Writers in Translation Programme Awards. His book ''The Iraqi Christ'', translated from Arabic to English by Jonathan Wright, was published by Comma Press in 2013. In 2014, Blasim became the first Arabic writer to win the ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize for ''The Iraqi Christ''.

Filmography

*''The Wounded Camera'' *''Uneton'', 2006Yle, Basaari
*''Luottamuksen arvoinen'', 2007 *''Elämä nopea kuin nauru'', 2007 *''Juuret'', 2008 *''Doctor DJ'', 2021

Books

*''Short Films'' (2005) collection of articles in: Cinema Booklets: Series of Publications for the Emirates Film Competition. Ed. S. Sarmini. Abu Dhabi: Emirates Cultural Foundation. *''Poetic Cinema'' (2006) collection of articles. Ed. Salah Sarmini, in: Cinema Booklets: Series of Publications for the Emirates Film Competition. Abu Dhabi: Emirates Cultural Foundation *''Diving into Existing'' (2007) correspondence and dairies in collaboration with Adnan al-Mubarak. *''Wounded Camera'' (2007) Writings on cinema. *''The Shia’s Poisoned Child'' (2008) story collection. *''Madman of Freedom Square'' (2009) Comma Press, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright *''The Iraqi Christ'' (2013) Comma Press, short stories, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright *''The Corpse Exhibition'' (2014) Penguin US, short stories, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright *''Iraq +100'' (2017) Tor Books, short story anthology (editor) *''God 99'' (2019) novel, Comma Press, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright *''Sololand'' (2025) novel, Comma Press, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright

References

External links

Hassan Blasim's blog
* ttp://www.booktrust.org.uk/prizes/7 {{DEFAULTSORT:Blasim, Hassan Finnish writers Finnish film directors 21st-century Iraqi poets Iraqi film directors 1973 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Iraqi emigrants to Finland Finnish people of Iraqi descent Refugees in Finland Finnish Arabic-language poets 21st-century Iraqi writers Iraqi short story writers 21st-century Iraqi novelists Naturalized citizens of Finland Iraqi refugees