Mona El Mansouri

Mona El Mansouri studied in Berlin and got her start in the fashion industry, where she worked as an assistant stylist for Cosmopolitan magazine.

After finding her calling in filmmaking, she spent more than six years as an assistant director shooting features and commercial films and working together with directors like Jean-Paul Seaulieu, Detlev Buck, Sönke Wortmann, Niko Caro and Roman Kuhn.

Mona has been directing since 1997 and is considered a trailblazer. El Mansouri is one of the foremost successful female commercial directors in Germany and now regularly shoots for clients across Spain and Germany, working closely with Mob Film on projects including Toyota and UBS.

When asked about her thoughts on directing, she stated, “In my eyes, you have to bring something alive – whether it is a piece of paper or a human being.”

She continued in her own words, “You have to visualise it. Of course, the most wonderful experience is where everything comes together – starting with a good script, a good cast and a good art director, and it is never the director alone: it is bringing together a team of people to bring a wholeness and a unity to the subject.”