Abu Alala was born and raised in the
United Arab Emirates to Sudanese parents who came from
Wad Madani in central Sudan. He studied
media and communication science at
Emirates University before starting his career as a filmmaker making documentaries for Arab and Western TV stations. During this time, he also directed four of his own short films before making his first feature,
You will Die at Twenty, in 2019. Intent on exploring his roots and telling a Sudanese story accessible to both a Sudanese and global audience for his first feature film, Abu Alala adapted
Sleeping at the Foot of the Mountain, a 2014 short story by Sudanese writer
Hammour Ziada.
You Will Die at Twenty was awarded the Venice International Film Festival's Lion of the Future award, the festival's prize for best feature debut, in August 2019. As a producer, Abu Alala founded a creative laboratory in collaboration with the
Doha Film Institute and produced five short films. In 2013, Abu Alala won the Best Arabic Theatre Script Award for his script ‘Apple Pies’. Promoting Sudanese films, he has also been involved in the selection for the
Sudan Independent Film Festival in Khartoum In 2021, he was selected as a jury member for the First feature section of the
74th Locarno Film Festival to be held from 4 to 14 August. == Favorite films ==