Born in 1966, Algeria. He majored Philosophy and Visual Arts at college. In 1991 he worked as a freelance photographer at Algerian weekly magazine and from 1993 to 1995, he had been working as an assistant for the photographer, Krzysztof Pruszkowski. In 2003, he taught modern art at Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Algeria. After his debut feature Rome Rather Than You(2006), he won FIPRESCI Prize at Venice Film Festival for his second feature Inland.