Born in Rabat, Morocco, Alaa studied cinema at ESAV Marrakech and then joined INSAS in Brussels for a master's degree in directing, production and screenwriting. During this course, he directed several short fiction and/or documentary films, including The House of Rumors (2008), National Education (2009), A Last Tribute (2011). He joined Meditalents 2012 to develop his short film Les poissons du déserts which participated in several festivals around the world and won the Grand Prize, the Critics' Prize and the Screenplay Prize at the National Film Festival. Since then, his first feature film script The Miracle of the Holy Unknown has been awarded at the 68th Locarno Film Festival, selected at the Fabrique des cinémas du monde in Cannes and at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.In December 2016, Alaa was named one of the five Arab Stars of Tomorrow by Screen International Magazine, the ceremony was held at the Dubai Film Festival. In 2017, he was selected as one of the Global Media Makers by Film Independent in Los Angeles program which he could not attend in the end.Between 2012 and 2017, he produced several documentaries and dramas and worked as a line producer on several international projects including recently The Stand in by Ra Di Martino with Valeria Golino and Filippo Timmi which had its premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival