Zeina Durra is heading to Egypt for her next film. The “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” filmmaker is directing “Luxor,” a romance set in the titular city starring Andrea Riseborough (“Black Mirror”) and Karim Saleh (“Transparent”), Screen Daily confirms. Production has already kicked off in and around Luxor and will continue through early April.

Riseborough portrays a UK aid worker on leave from her job at a clinic on the Jordanian-Syrian border and Saleh plays her former lover, an archaeologist. The couple begins to rekindle their relationship when Riseborough’s character returns to Luxor.

Sherine Reda (“Photocopy”) also stars. Front Row and Film Clinic are producing and will distribute throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

According to Durra, and hence the film’s title, Luxor itself is an essential part of the film’s narrative. “It’s a love story set among the instability of this moment,” she said, “but in a place that is a monument to past civilizations whose central beliefs, temples, and obsession with the afterlife were all rooted deeply in the idea of light overcoming darkness.”

Durra made her feature directorial debut with “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” The 2010 drama follows the romantic, personal, and cultural travails of a French artist living in Manhattan. Saleh was among the films co-stars. Durra also wrote, directed, and edited 2005 short film “Seventh Dog,” about a French-Palestinian woman who is reported to New York’s Homeland Security office after her dog is hit by a car.

Riseborough most recently appeared in Berlinale 2019 opening film “The Kindness of Strangers.” Lone Scherfig’s ensemble drama traces the interconnecting stories of several people experiencing the worst crises of their lives. “Nancy,” “Mandy,” and “Battle of the Sexes” are among Riseborough’s more recent credits. She and Women and Hollywood Founder and Publisher Melissa Silverstein participated in a panel entitled “How Women in the Industry Are Pushing for Change” at the Berlinale last month.