François Margolin

March 29, 1957 — Paris, France

François Margolin, born on the 29th of March 1957, alumnus from FEMIS (French National Film School), combines the hats of writer, director and producer. He directed Mensonge in 1994, with Nathalie Baye, The Opium of the Talibans in 2001 and Les Petits Soldats (about Child Soldiers in Liberia) in 2005. His first short movie, Elle et Lui, won the famous Jean Vigo Prize. His work as a producer won him to work with prestigious directors like Raoul Ruiz (Nucingen House, Dias de Campo), Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Flight of the Red Balloon), Raymond Depardon (Empty Quarter, une Femme en Afrique), Olivier Assayas (Boarding Gate) or Costa Gavras and Abbas Kiarostami for the omnibus documentary À propos de Nice, la suite. In 1986 he created the production company of Médecins Sans Frontières in Paris and worked as a journalist during the eighties for Liberation and L’Express, in Africa and Afghanistan. He published a successful book about the Black Jews of Ethiopia, We were the only Jews in the World, in 2008.