Lebanese writer and director born in Beirut in 1950. After the civil war, he directed his film Beirut, Oh Beirut (1975). He lived in the United State for a while, during which he met director Francis Ford Coppola. He also directed several documentaries during that phase. In 1982, he directed his second film Little Wars which also takes place during the civil war, after which he directed his two famous films L'homme voilé (1987) and Out of Life (1991), the latter of which won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1991 along with a Danish film (Europa). He died on December 10, 1993 at 43 years old, after falling down an elevator shaft.