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.
