Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
A screening of the film, “My Driver and I,” accompanied by a live conversation with Saudi Arabian filmmaker Ahd Kamel, is being organised at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Arts Centre on November 4.
The 2024 drama is set in 80s and 90s Jeddah, where a Saudi girl (played by Tarah Alhakeem and Roula Dakheelallah) and her Sudanese driver (Mustafa Shehata) form an unlikely friendship which is tested when she starts to take the wheel.
Salma is a young, privileged and rebellious girl born to a strict, grief-stricken mother and a loving but absent, workaholic father. Gamar, a young Sudanese man, left his family and moved to Jeddah to earn a living driving.
“My Driver and I” is the story of Salma and Gamar’s relationship and how quickly it evolves from a simple master/servant dynamic to an intimate personal friendship that bonds them through her teenage years and beyond.
Salma eventually realises, possibly too late, that Gamar wasn’t just her driver, he was her best friend, and she was his.
The story is about independence and finding family in the most unusual places. He drives her, but ultimately enables her to take the wheel of her own life’s journey.
