JIN JIYAN AZADÎ
Basheer Amin is a Syrian Kurdish scriptwriter, journalist and essayist. based in Montreal, Canada. He holds a degree in history from the University of British Columbia (UBC). His work spans fiction and non-fiction writing for a number of magazines and platforms, often engaging with questions of identity, politics, and cultural change in Syria, Kurdistan, and the broader Middle East. He contributed to the writers’ room of the Canadian drama series Transplant, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Dramatic Series.
Amin has worked on a number of short films, both narrative and documentary. His film Freedom is Not Free was released in 2020, and his more recent film Manis: Every Bygone is a Broken Contract (2023) marks his first directorial collaboration with the Montreal-based Midnight Raven collective, exploring themes of survival, memory, and exile.
His first collection of short stories, Seventeen Minutes on the Automotrice, is forthcoming and was selected by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) in its 2023 edition of the Critical and Creative Writing grant, highlighting his dual engagement with creative and analytical writing.
Amin’s multidisciplinary work reflects a deep commitment to storytelling in its many forms, from journalism and fiction to film and television.