MY DRIVER AND I by Saudi director Ahd Kamel is set to screen not once but thrice as part of the Arab Spectacular Program of the fourth Red Sea International Film Festival, which will run from December 5th to the 14th.
The film is scheduled to hold its world premiere screening at 7 pm on December 6th in the Cultural Square’s Auditorium. From there, the film will screen twice more, once on the following day at 4:15 pm and again at 9:30 pm on December 14th at Cinema 4 of the Cultural Square.
MY DRIVER AND I follows Salma, a young, affluent, and rebellious Saudi girl whose family hires a Sudanese man named Gamar to drive her to and from her day-to-day activities.
Initially adhering to a simple employer/employee dynamic, Salma and Gamar’s relationship quickly evolves into a friendship that bonds them through her teenage years and beyond, but their bond is put to the test when Salma gets older and starts taking the wheel.
An OSN+ original, MY DRIVER AND I will air on OSN+ and OSNtv with co-productions by Georgie Paget and Thembisa Cochrane from Caspian Films, Corniche Media, and Odd Kamel Films. Meanwhile, MAD World handles the film’s sales outside the MENA region.
Commenting on her film, director Ahd Kamed stated, “The film opens a window on a certain strand of late 20th-century Saudi society, looking deep into the core of a privileged household where the hired-help become part of the family, and watching as a girl’s universal journey through adolescence comes into contact with the reality of societal expectations.”
MY DRIVER AND I — which is Kamel’s directorial feature debut — was supported by OSN, Cairo Film Connection, the UK Global Screen Fund, and the Red Sea Film Foundation and is a heart-wrenching tale that shows the overlap of Sudanese society in Saudi Arabia like never before.
Starring Roula Dakheelallah, Rana Alamuddin, and Qusai Kheder, the film also stars the young Sudanese actor with Egyptian roots, Mustafa Shehata, who made his debut in Amjad Abu Alala’s film YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY, which received widespread critical acclaim at international film festivals, winning the Best Debut Feature at the Venice Film Festival and was Sudan's official submission to the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film in 2021.
Widely recognized for his impeccable acting talent, Shehata was also part of the Berlin International Film Festival’s Talents in 2020, was part of Screen Daily’s 2021 list of Arab Stars of Tomorrow, and served as a jury member at the Ajyal and Al-Ain film festivals.
Rounding out the cast is the Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, the director behind YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY and the producer behind Yemen’s official Oscar submission THE BURDENED, as well as the ground-breaking Sudanese film GOODBYE JULIA.
A joint production between Saudi Arabia and the UK, MY DRIVER AND I was directed and written by Ahd Kamel, lensed by Frida Marzouk, and edited by Andonis Trattos, with sound handled by Emmanuel Zouki and music by Marc Codsi.
Ahd Kamel is an award-winning actress and filmmaker raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia who is best known for her starring role in the 2014 BAFTA-nominated film WADJDA, her role as Fatima in the 2018 BBC2/Netflix series COLLATERAL, and for co-starring in Amazon’s 2022 thriller ALL THE OLD KNIVES alongside Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, and Laurence Fishburne.
Ahd grew up in Saudi Arabia and moved to New York City in 1998, where she received a BFA in Animation & Communication from Parsons School of Design in 2014 and a directing degree from New York Film Academy in 2015. She then went on to study acting under the personal tutelage of William Esper at the William Esper Studio.
Ahd has written, directed, and acted in her two award-winning short films, THE SHOEMAKER (2009) and SANCTITY (2012),with the latter becoming the first Saudi film to compete at the Berlinale. MY DRIVER AND I is her directorial feature debut.
