Born in Tunis, Tunisia, Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud studied at the INSAS Belgian School of Cinema where he completed his graduation in field of filming. Later, he studied Art History, Archeology and Journalism at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). These multidisciplinary studies gave him a solid training to face the field of cinema. Mahmoud made his debut feature film Traversées in 1982. His second feature film, released in 1992, Chichkhan, Poussière de Diamant was selected for Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Mahmoud has also released a number of documentary films between 1992 and 2006, such as: Italiani dell'altra Riva (1992), Anastasia de Bizerte (1996), Albert Samama-Chikli (1996), Ennejma Ezzahra (1998), The Thousand and One Voices (2001), Fadhel Jaibi, and A Theatre in Freedom (2003).