Ismaël Ferroukhi was born in Morocco in 1962. The Franco-Moroccan filmmaker gained recognition when he directed his first short film, L’Exposé (1992), which won the Kodak Award and the SACD Award for Best Short Film at the Festival de Cannes. Later, he co-wrote Cédric Kahn's Trop de bonheur (1994). His first feature-length film, The Great Journey (2004) won the Lion of the Future for Best First Feature at the Venice Film Festival. His second feature, Free Men (2011), was also screened at Cannes. Mica (2020), his latest feature film, was selected in the Competition at the El Gouna Film Festival.