Ridha Behi studied sociology and obtained a master's degree in 1973 at the Paris Nanterre University and a Ph.D. at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in 1977 with a thesis titled "Cinema and Society in Tunisia in the 1960s" under the management of Marc Ferro.As a Tunisian TV assistant, he wrote the scripts for three short films between 1964 and 1967, and in 1967 made his first short film, "La Femme statue", as part of the Tunisian Federation of Amateur Filmmakers.