Hassan Blasim (born 1973) is an
Iraqi-born film director and writer. He writes in
Arabic. He is a citizen of
Finland.[1]
Blasim left Iraq in 2000 to escape persecution for his films,[2] including The Wounded Camera, filmed in the
Kurdish area in northern Iraq and about the
forced migration of Kurds by
Saddam Hussein's regime. After travelling in Europe for four years, he settled in Finland in 2004, where he was granted asylum.[3] He made four short films for the Finnish broadcasting company
Yle. His short story collection The Madman of Freedom Square was long-listed for the
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010.[4] His book The Iraqi Christ, translated from Arabic to English by
Jonathan Wright, was published by
Comma Press in 2013. A selection of his stories was published as The Corpse Exhibition by Penguin US in 2014. It won a number of awards including one of four winners in the
English Pen's Writers in Translation Programme Awards.[5] In 2014, he became the first ever Arabic writer to win the
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Iraqi Christ.[6][7]
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