Benjamin Salama is an Algerian and French filmmaker, critic and journalist. Born in Algeria in 1952, he lived as a child through the horrors of the Algerian War (1954-1962), which put an end to the colonization of his country. After independence, his family moved to Algiers, where he completed his secondary education. In this bustling city of the 1960s and 1970s, he discovered the works of great filmmakers through the programming of the Algerian Cinémathèque. At 21, Benjamin traveled to France and was admitted to the national film school IDHEC (now La Fémis). After graduating, he settled in France. As the film industry was closed off, he had to earn his living as a film critic and later as a journalist in public broadcasting while developing his own film projects.