RECORD-BREAKER USES HUMOUR TO TELL CITY TALE OF SOCIETAL CHANGE
▶ Mandoob creator tells Razmig Bedirian how his film aims to bring oft-forgotten corners of Saudi capital to the fore – and it’s a box office hit
With his first feature film, Ali Kalthami tells a contemporary Riyadh story but from an unlikely, even fringe, perspective. Mandoob shows a side of the Saudi capital that lies in the shadow of the glitz and opulence. It revolves around Fahad. He’s a courier who, through a strange turn of events, steals illegal goods from local bootleggers to pay for his father’s medical bills.
Unsurprisingly, the act propels him and his family into the crosshairs of a crime syndicate, guiding the film into tense, dark and at times comedic territories.
The film, also known as Night Courier and on show in the UAE, treads along a fresh frontier in the Saudi filmmaking effort, specifically in its exploration of unpublicised experiences. A pivotal scene arrives when Fahad delivers food to a penthouse apartment and has a glimpse of how those in the upper echelon live. It’s the moment when the film’s absurdities begin to unravel and Fahad takes on a path that leads him to Riyadh’s underbelly.
Besides its integral position in the plot, the scene also holds the key to how the film’s storyline came about. “There was a moment in Riyadh, where I was at a gathering and this gathering had famous people, some well-known faces, and a [courier] knocks on the door,” Kalthami says. “He was delivering food, and he started staring at the people at the event. He was shocked. I was just watching him and feeling for him. He reminded me of myself.”
Kalthami himself has been on both sides of the proverbial threshold. Having held his share of odd jobs, the co-founder of the influential Saudi production company Telfaz11 says he knows what it feels like to “not be noticed”.
For Kalthami, the memory of the get-together, juxtaposed with the courier’s apparent awe, perfectly encapsulates the breadth of experiences that populate Riyadh. To him, the moment is symbolic of contemporary Saudi Arabia and it is the present that he wanted to explore in his debut feature. “I met with my co-writer [Mohammed Algarawi] and said this story could be good,” Kalthami says.
“It is about now. It needs to be about Saudi Arabia now. I don’t want to go into the past. I don’t want to delve into something in the future as well. Saudi Arabia now is so important to talk about.”
It is the debut feature for Kalthami, who has written and directed several shorts.
He says his main focus was to keep the protagonist front and centre, with all his quirks and challenges.
“Mandoob is about this guy who is a loner,” Kalthami says.
“He is struggling with himself around change and he’s not equipped to deal with change. He’s challenged by the environment. He’s a disturbed man, but I can sympathise with him a lot.” Kalthami and Algargawi went through as many as a dozen drafts until they felt ready to translate the script to film.
When it came to finding the right person to embody Fahad on screen, the duo were cautious and took their time to decide on an actor. “We tried not to think of somebody so it wouldn’t affect the writing,” Kalthami says. “But by the third draft, it started calling for Mohammed Aldokhei.”
Aldokhei is a recognisable figure in Saudi entertainment. The actor, known for his roles in the Netflix originals AlKhallat+ and Six Windows in the Desert, not to mention his plethora of Telfaz11-produced comedy shorts, is renowned for his comedic flair, but Kalthami says he knew Aldokhei had more to offer.
“I’ve known him for 20 years. I’ve worked with him so much,” Kalthami says. “He’s a comedian. He’s so funny.
“He’s appeared in so many humorous roles. But it was the time to actually play a different note with him, and I thought we could deliver something special, something different [with Mandoob].”
Aldokhei’s background in comedy translates well in Mandoob, particularly with the way
the actor injects a healthy dose of levity into otherwise tense situations. His performance adds a dimension to the film that stops it becoming a monotonous drop towards chaos.
“There are comedians who can pull off drama in an amazing way. There’s darkness in comedy,” Kalthami says, adding that Aldokhei gracefully treads that line.
“He was ready. He wanted to do something else. He didn’t want to be boxed into these roles of comedy and entertainment. It was a great collaboration. He saves the film in some moments, like he would go dark and intense, but then he’d say something funny or do something quirky.”
An ultimate litmus test for Mandoob came during its regional premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival. Though the film had previously screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kalthami says he was eager to see how audiences at home would react to it.
“I thought Toronto was tough, but bringing it home, I was relaxed until five minutes before the show,” explains Kalthami.
“My film is tense. It has very heavy subject matters. After the first five or 10 minutes, I became at ease. People were laughing, enjoying it and clapping. I saw that I was in my head too much and that it was time to relax.
“I wanted actually to show it first in Saudi Arabia because I made this film for the local audience. But Toronto showed interest in this film and I thought why not? Now’s the time for it to come home and I’m excited to share this story.
“I think it’s a different tone to cinema, but it’s an important one. It’s necessary to shed light on these unfortunate characters in our societies.”
Mandoob is about this guy who is a loner ... and he’s not equipped to deal with change. I can sympathise with him a lot ALI KALTHAMI Director