Simone Manetti, born in Livorno in 1978, is a director and documentary filmmaker. In 2016, he made his directorial debut with the documentary Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight, earning a nomination for Best Documentary in the Cinema del Reale category at the 2016 Nastri d'Argento. In 2019, his second documentary, Sono innamorato di Pippa Bacca, was presented at the 37th Torino Film Festival. In 2020, he directed the documentary mini-series Il Forteto, produced by Ascent Film for the Sky platform, followed in 2021 by Marta – Il delitto della Sapienza, a finalist for the Globo d’Oro for Best Documentary. He continued his work as a documentary filmmaker, directing the tv series Nel nome del Figlio and Pagato per uccidere for Sky Crime. In 2024, he directed the international docuseries Il giovane Berlusconi, distributed by Netflix. In November 2023, he created the documentary Rigenerazione in collaboration with Think|Cattleya, which was showcased at the Giffoni Hub and during the Mostra del Cinema di Venezia. Goodbye Baghdad marks his first venture into narrative filmmaking.