Writers: Mohammed Algarawi and Ali Kalthami
Director: Ali Kalthami
Rarely does the West get the opportunity to see films from Saudi Arabia, but Ali Kalthami’s thriller may change this if there are other films from the country that are as good as his. Brilliantly shot and expertly paced, Mandoob runs like a high-octane Ken Loach film as Fahad tries to make some extra cash to help his sick father.
When Fahad gets fired from his call centre job, he attacks his boss with a fire extinguisher. He might have left more peacefully except that his boss called him a bitch. An attack on his manhood is more than Fahad can take. There are other failures in his life, too; he’s unmarried and living at home with his father, his divorced sister, and her daughter. He has a whole family to support.
So, he becomes the mandoob of the title, a kind of Uber Eats delivery driver couriering take-outs to the wealthier members of Riyadh society. However, the start of the film tells us that ‘mandoob’ has another meaning: ‘someone who is mourned due to their death or misfortune.’ A happy ending seems an unlikely prospect with this disclaimer.
When Fahad delivers some hotel food to a luxury apartment in the modern district of town, he’s mistaken for someone who sells illegal alcohol, as liquor is only legal in certain hotel bars in Saudi Arabia. Realising how much money he could make from such contraband, Fahad, like a small-time Gatsby, determines to set up his own bootlegging trade. It’s a dangerous proposition, as he has to avoid the police and rival gangs. But it’s a decision that leads him to commit worse crimes.
Director Kalthami is less interested in the effects of alcohol – Fahad takes a sip from a whiskey bottle and then spends hours trying to erase the taste from his mouth – but more in the social inequities of the Saudi capital. While his family ekes out a living of sorts, other people are living the high life in skyscrapers or in underground silent discos. Fahad’s clients have wads of ready cash; in comparison, Fahad has to petition a local dignitary to help pay for his father’s medical care. Fahad’s sister is a contestant on a version of Dragons’ Den trying to acquire investment for her date ice cream business. Unfortunately, her ice cream has the tendency to melt too quickly.
Fahad usually wears the thawb, a requirement in most government offices. But he also wears it to a fancy restaurant where everyone else is in smart casual dress, their conversation peppered with English phrases making Fahad a man out of time as Western culture takes hold in Saudi Arabia. A female friend talks about her upcoming driving test, a right only recently obtained in the country.
Mohamad Aldokhei is a revelation as Fahad, ever expressive and seemingly always on the verge of breaking into a comedy routine, Indeed, the film is tagged as a comedy on its IMBd page, but it’s hard to see why. Just as soon as Aldokhei breaks into a smile, his face changes to despair or anger. It’s virtually impossible to know him – he has no confidants and there is no inner monologue – and we only gain access to him through a myriad of facial expressions, suggesting that he’d be no good as a spy.
If Gatsby’s colour is green – that green light mentioned at the end of the novel – then Fahad’s colour is yellow. Almost every scene is shot under moody streetlights whether outside his house, the distillery where he steals the alcohol or the gaudily-lit fairground where the film starts and ends. Only once do we see vivid shades and that is when he watches a firework display from a client’s flat, towering over the city. This shock of colour makes for the best scene of the film, underscored by some melancholic music.
As Saudi Arabia opens itself to the West, Mandoob is a crucial examination of two worlds colliding. Kalthami is objective throughout and yet his film is always absorbing and always thrilling.
Mandoob (Night Courier) will be released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland by Metis Films on 30 August.