Born and raised in Kabul, Ilyas Yourish began his career as a multimedia journalist and TV show producer in 2011, while studying at the Journalism Faculty of Kabul University. He founded Kamay Film in Afghanistan in 2018 with the goal of producing films centered on themes of identity, trauma, history, and memory, with a particular focus on his homeland and its people. In 2021, he was forced into exile to Belgium, where he has since lived and worked. His latest documentary Kamay (2024) premiered at Visions du Réel.