French-Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb is close to completing post-production on his upcoming drama Enemy Way, starring Forest Whitaker and Harvey Keitel.

Whitaker plays a former prisoner and Islamic convert who is pursued by a vengeful police officer played by Keitel in the film which is a strong contender for Cannes selection in 2014. The picture was filmed in the US state of New Mexico for nine weeks this spring.

Algeria’s Agence Algerienne pour le Rayonnement Culturel (AARC) is also hoping the film will be a contender for the 2015 Academy Awards. Bouchareb’s Outside The Law was among the final five films nominated in the foreign-language category of the 2011 Oscars.

Paris-based Pathe International is handling sales on the film, co-produced by AARC, Algerian Tassili Films, French Pathe Cinema, France 2 Cinema, Solenzara, Belgian Scope Invest and Taghit LLC and the Cohen Media Group in the US.

AARC has become a key player in the Algerian film industry following a 2012 law sanctioning the cultural body to support local cinema. 

Inspired by Swiss-French writer and filmmaker José Giovanni’s 1973 picture Two Men In Town, starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, Enemy Way is the second film in Bouchareb’s trilogy focusing on relations between the US and the Arab world, which kicked off with Just Like a Woman.

Bouchareb is due to shoot the third feature in the trilogy in Cuba in 2014. He has just finished writing the screenplay in collaboration with Algerian writer Yasmina Khadera, who also worked on Enemy Way and Ziad Doueiri’s The Attack.

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