Algerian cultural agency AARC is showing first images of Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina’s Crépuscule des Ombres at the Dubai Film Market.

It is the first work in 30 years from Lakhdar-Hamina, best known for Chronicle Of The Years Of Ember, which won the Palme d’Or in 1975 and remains the only Arab or African film to have clinched Cannes’ top prize.

Set in the Algerian desert and epic in scale, Crépuscule des Ombres revolves around a local freedom fighter and two French soldiers, one in favour of Algerian independence, the other against.

French actor Samir Boitard, who starred in hit French TV series Spiral, plays the Algerian revolutionary opposite Nicolas Bridet and Laurent Hennequin as the soldiers.

AARC started investing in cinema in 2012 as part of a state-backed initiative to build up Algeria’s film industry. To date it has supported roughly 100 works. As a key backer, it handles rights for all the titles, either partially or fully.

Other pictures on its slate include Rachid Bouchareb’s Enemy Way, starring Forest Whitaker and Harvey Keitel, and Palestinian director Najwa Najjar’s Eyes Of A Thief starring Algerian singer Souad Massi.