Mehdi Hmili

Mehdi Hmili, is a Tunisian filmmaker. He is best known as the director of critically acclaimed shorts and feature films Thala My Love, The Night of Badr and Li-La.

Personal life He was born and raised in Tunis, Tunisia. After graduating with a degree in direction and screenplay from the Manouba University in Tunis, he moved to France for further studies.

Career In France, he graduated from the Paris Film School. After graduation, he directed his maiden short film X-Moment in 2009 and then Li-La in 2011. This black and white drama revolves around the difficulty of loving. After the critic success, he directed his second short The Night Of Badr, another black and white drama about an old homosexual poet. The film was screened in March 2012.

In 2014, he worked as the cinematographer of the documentary short Offside. Then in 2016, he made his debut feature film Thala Mon Amour. The film focused in the village of Thala during the Tunisian Revolution. The film was later released at the end of 2014 in France and Tunisia. Apart from filmmaking, he is also a popular poet in Tunisia where he made poems against the regime of Ben Ali. He also made two 16mm films, Instant Guilty and The Graduate.

Filmography Year Film Role Genre Ref. 2009 X-Moment Director, writer, actor Short film 2010 Li-La Director, writer, actor Short film 2012 The Night of Badr Director, writer Short film 2014 Offside Cinematographer Documentary short 2016 Thala My Love Director, writer Film 2017 Aya Producer Short film 2022 Streams Director, Writer, Co-Producer Long film