Born in Saumur (Maine-et-Loire), he spent his adolescence in Tübingen (Germany). At nineteen, he made a stint with the marines of Lorient.

He arrived in Paris in 1993 and directed his first feature film entitled Les Déclassés in 1997, which was only released in 2001 in Germany1. This film, in spite of its lack of means, is a success of esteem in Germany, where it is considered as one of the best French films of the last ten years by Hans Schiffer in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.