(1944- )

Born in Algiers. He studied at the Algiers Cinema Institute, then at the Paris Institute of Motion Picture Arts. He wrote, directed and produced film for television and the cinema. He was awarded the Reba Steward and Genevieve McMillan Award for Distinguished Filmmaking by the Harvard Film Archive.

• Bab el web, 2005
• Chouchou, 2003
• L’autre monde, 2001
• À bicyclette, 2001 (TV)
• Pepe Carvalho - La solitude du manager, 1999 (TV)
• Alger-Beyrouth: Pour mémoire,1998
• L’amour est à réinventer, dix histoires d'amours au temps du sida, 1996
• Salut cousin! 1996
• Lumière et compagnie, 1996
• Dans la décapotable, 1996
• Bab El-Oued City, 1994. International Film Critics prize, Cannes Film Festival, 1994. Grand Prize Arab Film Festival, Paris, 1994.
• L’Après-Octobre, 1989
• Un amour à Paris, 1987
• L’homme qui regardait les fenêtres, 1986
• Mughamarat batal, 1979
• Omar Gatlato, 1976

Synopsis:
Chouchou: Chouchou is a gay North African cross-dresser, who leaves Algeria for Paris. He poses as a Chilean refugee, and is taken in by an open-minded priest. He finds work as a maid, receptionist and cook for one of the priest's parishioners, and lives out his dreams being able to work dressed as a woman.

Bab el-Oued City: Boualem is a baker in the Bab El-Oued district of Algiers. One morning, shortly after the bloody riots of October, 1988, he destroys the loudspeaker broadcasting propaganda of a local fundamentalist group. The extremists, led by Said, regard this act as deliberately provocative and aim to make an example of the culprit.