[1] His father was a theologian and amateur artist and writer, which, to an extent, influenced the personality of the young Mahmoud.

He studied at the INSAS Belgian school of cinema where he completed his graduation in field of filming.

Later, he studied art history, archeology and journalism at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

[1] He first tried to make it as a film writer by participating in the writing of two films: The Son of Amr's death (Le Fils d'Amr est mort) of Jean-Jacques Andrien and Kfar Kassem of Borhane Alaoui.

Mahmoud has also released a number of documentary films between 1992 and 2006, such as: Italiani dell'altra riva (1992), Anastasia de Bizerte (1996), Albert Samama-Chikli (1996), Ennejma Ezzahra (1998), The Thousand and One Voices (2001), Fadhel Jaibi, a Theatre in Freedom (2003) and The Beys of Tunis, a colonial monarchy in turmoil (Les Beys de Tunis, une monarchie dans la tourmente)(2006).