In 2018, he directed a documentary, "Figs in April" (French: Des figues en Avril), to honor his eighty-year-old mother, Messaouda Dendoune,[3] in exile.
He concluded his stay with a trip around the world on a bicycle with financial and advertising coverage from the Australian Red Cross to promote global efforts to combat AIDS.
[5] In March 2003, he went down in Iraq to serve as a human shield to protect a water treatment plant in Baghdad in the face of threats from the international coalition forces.
[7][8] On 14 February 2013, after 23 days in prison, he was released in exchange for financial bail,[9] and he recorded the events of that adventure in a book entitled "A Peaceful Man's War Diary" (French: Journal de guerre d'un pacifiste).
He also carried a number 93, a reference to the French department of Seine-Saint-Denis where he was born and commonly associated with immigration from north and sub Saharan Africa and with high crime rate.