After years of playing the bad guy, reading for characters that were villains, here I am on a network TV show playing a character whose religion doesn’t define him but is something he doesn’t turn away from either. Bash is a person. Imperfect. Hard Working. Muslim. There needs to be more diversity within representation. The responsibility lies with industry to give opportunities to voices that have been silenced or otherwise ignored.
Medical doctor turned cook and recent immigrant Bashir (Hamza Haq) proves to be in the right place at the right time when he saves several patrons at his restaurant job. Administering life-saving first aid after a truck crashed into the storefront becomes a fateful event for him. One of the survivors, the crispy Dr. Bishop (John Hannah), is grateful for Bashir’s treatment and offers him a job at the hospital he oversees, despite Bashir’s lack of immediate credentials.
Life in the ER is always frantic, but to Bashir, it’s the life he’s always wanted. Having risked his life in Syria to care for others, his new home in Canada leads him to new experiences, prejudices and scrutiny as an immigrant. He also has to learn not to spread himself too thin with loyalties to his sister Amira (Sirena Gulamgaus), his new job and his colleagues back home. His fellow resident doctors are just as eager as he is to prove their worth at the hospital. Dr. Curtis (Ayisha Issa), Dr. Leblanc (Laurence Leboeuf) and Dr. Hunter (Jim Watson) all want to stay in Bishop’s good graces and support each other in such a hectic environment.
Transplant isn’t your everyday hospital drama. It depicts an immigrant perspective that captures the duality of missing home and building a new life to forget the trauma experienced in their homeland.
Review by Carolyn Mauricette
Talent:
Ayisha Issa, Hamza Haq, Jim Watson, Laurence Leboeuf
