Born and raised in the City of Genk to Kurdish migrants, who moved to belgium during the second half of the twentieth century. while growing up he Always loved photography, theatre and dancing, and nurtured these interests from a young age. Movies and audiovisual content were also an integral part of his upbringing as his late father was the founder of the first kurdish television broadcast company.

shortly After obtaining a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking he got the chance to shoot the short documentary ‘the wasp and the weather’, directed by robin vanbesien, which got a selection for the prestigious ‘cinéma du réel’ 2020, in paris. They’re friendship and collaboration continued all the way to robin’s first feature documentary film ‘hold on tho her’, which got selected for the berlin film festival (berlinale) in 2024 in the ‘forum expanded programme’.

In late 2023 orange flavored love’, won the prestigious student award VAF wildcard for fiction. This shortfilm - for which Diren was the cinematographer - was shot in Mosul, iraq , with long time friend and collaborator Angela Alsouliman.

meanwhile Diren is continuing to train and discover his cinematographic sensibilities, both through his ongoing and new collaborations, as well as through his amateur photography work. His cinematographic style is highly flexible and always serves the stories the directors try to tell, and the people who make those stories come to life.

‘Moving stories create moving images’