Forest Whitaker Joins Boomerang Atomic Ahead of DOC NYC Screening
Forest Whitaker has joined Rachid Bouchareb's documentary Boomerang Atomic as an executive producer, ahead of its screening at DOC NYC in November, according to Deadline, published on 30 October 2026.
The film returns to France's first atomic bomb test. On 13 February 1960, France detonated the device near Reggane, in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. Algeria was still under French colonial rule at the time. Deadline reports that the bomb was four times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.
The film uses only French state archives. Its images and commentary were originally produced by French authorities, and it has no narration added from today. The approach leaves the official record to speak for itself, with the film placing that record alongside the wider legacy of colonialism in Algeria.
Bouchareb is best known outside documentary circles for Days of Glory, his 2006 drama that earned an Oscar nomination. He and Whitaker first worked together on Two Men in Town, a 2014 Berlinale competition film in which Whitaker starred. Bouchareb is also credited as the film's cinematographer, and DOC NYC lists him as director of the 2025 production. The producers named by DOC NYC are Bouchareb, Ruth Yoshie Linton, Bilal Bouchareb and Whitaker.
Boomerang Atomic premiered Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2025. Films shown out of competition are screened at the festival but do not take part in its prizes. The film has since won the Audience Award at the 2026 Seoul International Eco Film Festival. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) also presented it in Hiroshima, as part of commemorations of the atomic bombing of that city on 6 August 1945.
DOC NYC places the film in its SHORTS: Hidden Histories programme. The festival is the next stop for the film, with the screening set for November.
The film is also the first part of a longer project. A feature film called Reggane is in development with American and Japanese co-producers, and it will continue the story of the test site.
