After studying film at INSAS in Brussels, Jean-Jacques Andrien made several short films, some of which were screened at Cannes. His first feature film, "Le fils d'Amr est mort!", won the Grand Prix at Locarno in 1975. His second feature film, "Le grand paysage d'Alexis Droeven" (1981), a poetic and dramatic film starring Nicole Garcia and Jerzy Radziwilowicz, tells the story of a young farmer questioning his future. He returned to this subject nearly thirty years later with his documentary "It Rained on the Great Landscape" (2012), having previously directed "Mémoires" in 1984 and "Australia", starring Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons, in 1988.