Samia Chala was born in Algiers in 1964. After studying engineering, she left Algeria at the height of the civil war and arrived in France in 1994. She initially worked as a production assistant before becoming an investigative journalist for numerous documentary productions. For the past seven years, Samia Chala has been directing her own films. Her documentaries focus on Algeria, women, exile, and, more broadly, migration from the Global South to the North. Since 1995, she has directed numerous documentaries and short films. She also works as a journalist and writer for the series Algérie(s), as well as for NHK and Channel 4.