Biography

Malik Bendjelloul, born in Sweden, performed in Swedish TV-series "Ebba och Didrik" as a child in the nineties and later in life studied Journalism and media-production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar. He has produced several musical documentaries for Swedish Television (SVT) where he also worked as a reporter on the show "Kobra" until he resigned to travel the world. During these travels Malik Bendjelloul first came in contact with the story which was to develop into "Searching for Sugarman" somewhere in South America.
- IMDb mini biography by: Victor Lengquist

When Bendjelloul first applied to the Swedish Film Academy for funding, a consultant there viewed an early version of Searching for Sugar Man (2012) and told Bendjelloul it was "shit." Bendjelloul raged against the established arbiters of culture and taste. "What kind of films do they fund?" he lamented [Variety 2014].

His favorite film was Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions (2003), in which one director challenges another to make a short film five times with a different obstruction each time [Variety 2014].

Brother of: Johar Bendjelloul.

Swedish mother and Algerian father.

I don't think 'Sugar Man' is a music doc any more than 'The Social Network' is about computers. It just happens to have the best soundtrack ever.