Ismail is a filmmaker, a visual artist and an author. As a filmmaker, he directed Black Medusa (Tiger Competition, IFFR 2021), Fragments of self-phone-destruction (Special award, Experimental and Different Cinema Festival, 2019), Leila's blues (premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2018), Babylon (Grand Prize, FID Marseille 2012) among others. He also produced The last of us (Lion of the Future, Venice 2016). As a visual artist, he has exhibited photography works, video art, printed works and multimedia installations at several venues: Talmart Gallery (Paris), A. Gorgi Gallery (Tunis), Venise Cadre Gallery (Casablanca), Le Cube (Rabat), la Friche Belle de Mai (Marseilles). Ismail has also curated film programs and art exhibitions.