Q&A Discussion on "I Am Rohingya" with Yusuf Zine

I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts (2018)

Sharing a title with the award-winning play of the same name, I Am Rohingya chronicles the journey of fourteen refugee youth who take the stage in order to depict their families' harrowing experiences during the on-going Burmese genocide of Rohingya Muslims. Leading up to the opening night of their performance, the film takes audiences through the personal lives of the child performers, capturing their struggles as they adjust to their new lives in Canada, and exploring the difficult rehearsal process of recreating scenes of horror. With no prior acting experience, these youth must come together and re-enact the stories of their people in order to show the world that they will not be forgotten.

Yusuf Zine is a professional actor and director in film, TV and live theatre. He co-founded his media production company in 2017 called Innerspeak Media. His first feature documentary film was “I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts,” which won the 2018 Cinema Politica Audience Choice Award. In 2021, he hosted, co-wrote and produced an investigative, true-crime podcast series for TVO entitled “Unascertained” and was named one of Amazon Music’s Best Canadian Podcasts of 2021. His on-screen credits include Circuit Breakers (Apple TV+), The Boys (Amazon Prime), and Transplant (CTV). He’s worked with prolific artists such as Hasan Minhaj, Maz Jobrani, Alicia Silverstone, and Director X.