[2][3][4][5][6][7] His Sephardic Jewish parents were Joab Nahum of Izmir, Turkey, and Fortunée Palacci of Cairo, Egypt; he had one brother, Robert (1925–1973).
[8] Nahum arrived in Paris at the age of 24 and in 1945 began to study at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC, since 1988 La Fémis).
Early in 1950, his documentary The Hollywood Ten was released; thereafter, fellow director Edward Dmytryk denounced him as a communist.
[9] For Berry's first film in France, Ça va barder (1955), Nahum's job started as assembling crew .
The French soldiers disliked the make-up intensely or anything else that made them feel like African slaves, according to Nahum.
In the early 1960s, he directed the film Le Saint mène la danse, which starred Michèle Mercier.