Mohamed Ben Attia was born in Tunisia in 1976 and studied audiovisual communications at the University of Valenciennes in France. He kicked off his filmmaking career with short films, including Kif Lokhrin (2006), which won the Silver Award at FESPACO, and Selma (2013), which screened in competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. In 2016, Ben Attia released his highly successful debut feature, Inhebek Hedi, which won the Best First Film Award and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival. He found similar success with his next feature, Dear Son (2018), which was selected for the Director’s Fortnight at the Festival de Cannes. His third feature, Behind the Mountains (2023), had its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti section.