SHShowcaseDirector: Rachid Bouchareb
France, Algeria, USA, Belgium | English
2014 | 120min.
Format: DCP
15+Forest Whitaker and Harvey Keitel star in Rachid Bouchareb’s New Mexico–set remake of a 1973 Alain Delon/Jean Gabin film, with Whitaker in the Delon role as an ex-con trying to go straight, and Keitel as a volatile small-town sheriff trying desperately to send him back to jail. Imprisoned for 18 years, William Garnett (Whitaker) is now living in a tiny desert town, looking sharp in his ever-constant suit-and-tie and at peace with himself thanks to a beautiful new girlfriend (Dolores Heredia), a helpful parole officer (Brenda Blethyn) and his recent conversion to Islam. Unfortunately, two men soon appear with far more dangerous intentions. Garnett’s old colleague (Luiz Guzman), who is ready to drag him back into the criminal underworld, and the local sheriff (Keitel), who will stop at nothing to prove that Garnett is still a danger. Together, both men test Garnett’s resolve to live in peace, as well as our hero’s religious learnings that “redemption is always possible for those who desire it.' Bouchareb adapted the original screenplay together with the great Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra. Under their pen, the story changes from the original statement against the death penalty to an heartbreaking description of what can happen to a man who sees all his hopes destroyed, a story whose powerful symbolism is all the more clear in the Arab world. —Jason Sanders