Néjia Ben Mabrouk

Néjia Ben Mabrouk (born 1 July 1949) is a Tunisian screenwriter and director, known for her work on the award-winning film Sama and on the documentary The Gulf War... What Next?.^{[citation needed]}

Early life and education

Ben Mabrouk was born at El Oudiane, Tunisia, in 1949 and attended boarding school at Sfax. At a young age, she became familiar with European cinema and joined the local film club.^[1]: 380 Concerning her career plans growing up, she explains:

At that time I didn't want to make my own films, perhaps because there were no role models of women as filmmakers. All the directors were men; for me as a young woman, therefore, the more obvious choice was to tell stories through writing. I dreamed of writing novels.^[1]: 380

During her college years, Ben Mabrouk first studied French at Tunis University, but had to leave after a few semesters for financial reasons. She began studying filmmaking at INSAS in 1972 at Brussels.^[1]: 379 Her film education was largely built on critical documentary film.^[1]: 363 She wrote and directed the film At Your Service for her graduation project in 1976, and then worked as a trainee for RTBF.^[2]

Career

From 1979 to 1980, Ben Mabrouk started writing the script for her first full-length feature,