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- Entertainment
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Start the week with a film: In ‘Night Courier', a seriocomic battle for survival
It's not often that we get to watch films from Saudi Arabia. It's rarer still to watch a movie that explores the underbelly of Saudi cities. Night Courier is one such film. Ali Kalthami's Arabic-language directorial debut from 2023 is set in Riyadh. The original title, Mandoob, refers both to a person who delivers a package as well as a victim of misfortune. Indeed, long is the night and extended the misery of Fahad, who loses his job in a telecommunications company because he hangs up a bit too soon on a customer. Fahad (Mohamad Aldokhei) puts up a spirited fight, but there is the unmistakeable sense that his bosses are happy to get rid of him. In order to support his ailing father and divorced sister, Fahad becomes a courier of illicit goods, which puts him – and viewers – on a path of discovery of Riyadh's lesser-known aspects. Underneath a veneer of morality, there's a lot of activity that borders on the blasphemous, not to mention criminal, Fahad finds. His desperate measures to earn money challenge his survival skills, not to mention his mental balance. Night Courier is available on JioHotstar and Prime Video. The slickly filmed, neon-lit Arab noir is both a cruel comedy as well as a cautionary tale about overreach. Ali Kalthami's film is like Martin Scorsese's After Hours in its exploration of the pleasures and anxieties that come into view after sundown. Night Courier also resembles Jafar Panahi's Crimson Gold in its exploration of the despair felt by a man who struggles to live up to expectations or provide for his family. Fahad isn't the only one who's striving – his sister too dreams of starting a business that will give her the financial independence she craves. The lugubrious-faced Mohamad Aldokhei's performance careens between the comic and the tragic. Through his curious eyes, Night Courier dives into netherworlds where a word or a step out a line can be risky for the economically disadvantaged. The film was a domestic hit in Saudi Arabia, proving the viability of local stories that mine lived realities. Play
France 24
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
‘Night Courier': Saudi thriller captures flipside of Riyadh's leap forward
A rare foray into the Saudi nightlife, both swanky and seedy, Ali Kalthami's 'Night Courier' (' Mandoob ' in Arabic) centres on thirtysomething Fahad (Mohamad Aldokhei), a hapless call centre worker who takes on night shifts as a delivery man to pay his father's medical bills and support his divorced sister. Struggling to make ends meet, Fahad makes one bad choice after another, eventually ending up in the lucrative business of delivering alcohol to the well-heeled – only to fall foul of the gangs who typically run such operations. The consumption and possession of alcohol is strictly forbidden for Saudis – and punishable by fines, imprisonment and public flogging. On the black market, however, the sons of wealthy Saudi families can buy alcohol at hefty prices, reaching several hundred euros for a bottle of whisky. Such deliveries usher Fahad into the luxury world of Riyadh's partying elite, resulting in a dizzying and deeply disturbing encounter for the devout Muslim. Kalthami's camera exposes the brutal contrast between his clients' swanky penthouses and the shabby outer suburbs he lives in, capturing a vivid snapshot of a rapidly changing city. A city 'kind to nobody' In mining the themes of poverty, social disparity and alcohol trafficking, 'Night Courier' tackles head-on the social and economic realities of contemporary Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich Gulf state where fossil fuels are far from benefitting everyone. In 2023, some 13.6% of Saudis were living below the poverty line, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). 'The film describes situations I experienced myself,' says Kalthami, who grew up in a poor district of Riyadh, a sprawling and fast-changing metropolis he describes as 'kind to nobody'. At 41, the filmmaker is one of the faces of the cultural 'openness' touted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, who has identified cinema and the arts as means to overhaul the image of a country long associated with repressive social policies. Released domestically in late 2023, 'Night Courier' proved to be a commercial hit at home, topping the box office with more than 600,000 sales – an unprecedented achievement for a native film in a country that only lifted a ban on cinemas in 2017. A burgeoning film industry The movie's commercial and critical success caught the eye of the Netflix platform, which released it in the wider region last September. 'With about three to five feature films produced in a year, Saudi cinema is still in its infancy – but it's experiencing a boom,' says Maxime Bos, a former French diplomat who lived in Saudi Arabia for seven years, where he worked in the cultural field. 'There are many young directors, including female directors, and they have unexpected things to say,' he adds. Bos says the country's fledgling industry is 'in the process of structuring itself', with the emergence of writers, cinematographers, music composers and other jobs critical to the sector. Film workers enjoy the backing of the Saudi culture ministry, which supports training programmes, co-productions, creative residencies and the promotion of homegrown talent abroad. The industry can also rely on the growing clout of the Red Sea Film Festival, a star-studded showcase for Saudi film and a key instrument of the country's cultural soft power, whose eponymous foundation helped support 'Night Courier'. An outlet for youth The emergence of the Saudi film industry has gone hand in hand with its relative liberalisation, with the likes of Kalthami delving into societal issues that would previously have been taboo. 'By giving a green light to 'Night Courier', Saudi authorities want to prove that Saudi cinema and artistic life truly exist, and that they allow things to be shown,' says Karim Sader, a political analyst and consultant specialising in the Gulf countries. 'But it's not like the film is destroying the country's image,' Sader cautions. 'It tells the story of one man's marginality. It raises a social issue but does not undermine the government. It remains a controlled gesture of openness.' In a country where 60% of the population is under 30, Crown Prince bin Salman is banking on support from ultra-connected youth who are steeped in Western culture and yearning to shape their own narratives, adds the consultant. 'MBS has chosen to give them this 'privilege' of sorts, to have their own cinema, their own stories, their own outlet,' he says. 'The aim, perhaps, is also to ward off the frustrations that elsewhere boiled over into the Arab Spring uprisings.'
