This 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 blunders in, casting himself as her protector.
Then one night he spots an alcohol dealer, follows him and steals his stash of liquor, idiotically unaware of the likely repercussions. I didn’t feel the movie maintained the dramatic tension enough to work as a lean thriller, but as a portrait of a toxic man who thinks he could be a contender it’s funny and disturbing, with an impressive lead performance by Aldokhei.
• Mandoob is in UK and Irish cinemas from 30 August
