Born in 1955 in Baghdad, Iraq, Samir moved to Switzerland as a child with his parents at the beginning of the 1960s. At the beginning of the 1970s he attended the Schule für Gestaltung  (School of Design) in Zurich, and completed an apprenticeship as a typographer.

After training as a cameraman, he began to realise his own films in the mid-1980s, which drew attention at various festivals with their innovative character. His list of works in the meantime encompasses more than 40 short and full length feature films for the cinema and television. In the 1990s he also worked for various German broadcasters (ZDF, ARD, SAT 1, PRO 7, etc.) as a director for series and television films. At the Swiss Expo 02, the ‘Swiss Love’ pavilion, for which Samir developed the idea and concept, also met with a very positive response.

Together with the documentary filmmaker Werner Schweizer, he took over the production company Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion in 1994, which has since made a name for itself as a talent pool for Swiss films.

Samir has been active as a producer for numerous feature and documentary films. His diversified productions include the documentary film ‘White Terror’ by Daniel Schweizer or the mockumentary ‘Birdseye’, but also feature films such as ‘Nachbeben (Aftershock)’ by Stina Werenfels or Andrea Stakas' ‘Das Fräulein (The Girl)’. In 2012 his production ‘Opération Libertad’ celebrated its premiere in the Directors Fortnight programme at Cannes.