Abu Nowar was born in Oxford in 1981,[6] from a Jordanian military family. He is the youngest of thirteen half-siblings.[7] As a child, he heard stories from his father about chivalrous and courageous Bedouin warriors, which later influenced his film making.[8] In an interview with The Times' Kate Maltby, he said: "I’ve always had a sympathy for people caught between different pressures."[9]