Abdeslam Kelai was born in Larache, Morocco, in 1969, and began his filmmaking career with the short film Happy Day (2003). He has directed several featurelength films for television, including Majda, Les Hommes et la mer, Eaux noires, La Dame de l’aube, which won the prize for Best Television Film at the Amman Television Festival, and Amour et colère and Le Silence de la mémoire, both of which won the Grand Prize at the Meknès Television Festival. He made his feature-length cinema debut with Malak (2012), which won numerous awards. Goldfishes (2022) is his second feature film for cinema.