Mehdi Lallaoui (arabic : مهدي لعلاوي), born in 1956 in Argenteuil, is a Franco-Algerian writer and director whose productions have the themes of working-class memories (particularly that of Algerian immigration), urban memories and colonial memory. His father, a specialized worker (OS), participated in the peaceful demonstration of October 17, 1961 during which he was beaten and left for dead by the French police. This fact, of which he was only informed at the end of the 1970s, would structure his militant commitment thereafter.