Night Courier

In the heart of Riyadh, where desperation and opportunity collide, this is the gripping tale of a mentally fragile man racing against time to save his ailing father.

‘Mandoob’ is a darkly comedic, gripping tale about the lives of Saudi Arabia’s gig workers, who toil in the shadows to make the fantastical lives of elites possible. Fahad’s (Mohammed Aldokhei) aspiring entrepreneur sister Sarah (Hajar Alshammari) and their ailing father Nasser (Mohammed Alttowayan) know that Fahad means well and genuinely wants what’s best for the family. But he is a restless call centre worker whose habitual lateness and apathy regarding irrational customers gets him fired. He becomes a delivery driver for an Uber-like service known as Mandoob (which loosely translates to “courier” in Arabic). This powerful and surprising film cleverly shows the realities of how hard it is to thrive as a gig worker in a system that’s designed to keep them nameless, faceless, perpetually busy and underpaid.

Saudi Arabia 2023 Ali Kalthami 110m

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo

This new adaptation of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas was the summer box office smash in France.

Set against the tumultuous post-Napoleonic era, the story follows Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), who is wrongly imprisoned and then escapes, crafting intricate revenge schemes against those who wronged him. This is a stunning and emotionally gratifying adventure film, built on rock-solid source material of course – with its timeless revenge theme still entertaining modern-day viewers. Compared to earlier adaptations, this latest version is briskly paced and rousingly acted by an all-around stellar ensemble. Everything about this robust and very enjoyable retelling of the classic is epic in scale: from the lavish sets and the orchestral score to the bold performances and the running time. We will include a short intermission.

France 2024 Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte 178m