Karim Bensalah

Algiers, Algeria

Born in Algiers to an Algerian father and a Brazilian mother, Karim Bensalah moved to Paris at the age of 18 to study literature, philosophy and social sciences, after growing up in Haiti and Senegal. Questions of the construction of identity are naturally at the core of his work. He then entered the London Film School, where he directed Constant Flow. Back in Paris, he worked as a director, scriptwriter and actor. His short films, Le secret de Fatima, Racine(s) and Les Heures blanches, were screened and won prizes at a number of festivals, including Premiers Plans. For a period he joined the Tribudom Collective, which works with teenagers in working-class neighbourhoods in Paris and its suburbs, where he made several short films, including Chantier(s). At the same time, he was selected by Sundance Screenwriters and Director's Lab to develop his first feature film. A screenwriter and consultant on other projects, Karim Bensalah has also been working in image education for over fifteen years, in France and Brazil. Six pieds sur terre is his first feature film, the script of which was read at the Premiers Plans Festival in 2022.