A theatre director and actor, Faouzi Bensaïdi directed his first multi-award-winning short film, The Cliff, in 1997. He then co-wrote Far with André Téchiné. In 2000, Bensaïdi directed two short films: Le Mur, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, and The Rain Line, which won an award at the Venice International Film Festival. His first feature-length film, A Thousand Months (2003), received two awards when it was presented in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. His following films were selected for prestigious festivals: WWW - What a Wonderful World (2006) played at Venice; Death for Sale (2011) won the Art Cinema Award at the Berlin International Film Festival; and Volubilis (2017), which was selected for Venice Days and won seven awards at the Tangier National Film Festival. Deserts (2023), his latest feature film, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.