T his film – the title of which has been translated as Night Courier for English-speaking audiences – has been a huge box office hit on its home turf in Saudi Arabia , which lifted a 35-year ban on cinemas in 2017. It’s a kind of satirical dark comedy about a Deliveroo-style driver called Fahad (Mohamad Aldokhei), who gets mixed up in alcohol bootlegging. Fahad is a bit of a fantasist, and there’s something Robert De Niro-like about the way Aldokhei plays it, with echoes of Travis Bickle and a little Rupert Pupkin.
Or, for a more a recent reference of delusional masculinity, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. The movie opens with Fahad losing his job at a call centre. He’s been caught red-handed being rude to customers, but he tries to brazen it out.
His posturing is ridiculous, but it tips over when he grabs a fire extinguisher and assaults his line manager. After being fired, Fahad turns his side-hustle delivery work into a full-time job; driving around Riyadh at night making dropoffs to rich people in luxury penthouses, his alienation captured by cinematographer Ahmed Tahoun’s chilly camerawork. Rising-star director Ali Kalthami presents us with a glimpse of Riyadh in transition.
The city is modernising, but luckless Fahad is stuck in the past. He misinterprets a female ex-colleague’s friendliness as romantic interest; it’s obvious she views him sweet but sad. Fahad’s sister Sara is opening a cookie business; she doesn’t need his help but he.