Nabil Maleh was born on September 28, 1936 in Damascus, Syria. He was a director and writer, known for Bikaya suar (1980), Al-kompars (1993) and Al-fahd (1972). He was married to Feryal Abedrabou. He died on February 24, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
He was considered by many to be "the father of Syrian cinema". Most of his films were set in Syria.
He made about 150 films, including shorts and features. He also worked in television, wrote screenplays and articles, and painted.
As a young man he was politically outspoken, criticizing the government of the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, which controlled Syria as part of the United Arab Republic. He studied at Prague Film School, and returned to Syria in 1964.
He taught at the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of California, Los Angeles, before living in Switzerland and then Greece. He returned to Syria in 1993.