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My Driver & I is Saudi writer-director-actress Ahd Kamel’s (Wadjda) very personal film set in 1980s and 1990s Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, telling the story of the relationship of a rebellious girl and her Sudanese chauffeur who form an unlikely friendship that is tested when she starts to take the wheel.

The coming-of-age movie from producers Georgie Paget and Thembisa Cochrane, inspired by Kamel’s childhood, had its world premiere on Friday as part of the Arab Spectacular Program of the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff).

Saudi actress Roula Dakheelallah, portraying Salma, and Sudan’s Mustafa Shehata, playing driver Gamar, lead the cast, which also includes Mishaal Tamer, Rana Alamuddine, and Qusai Kheder.

In a conversation with THR, the two stars lauded Kamel’s vision and talent. “I’ve worked with other film directors from all over the world, but working with a director who...

It’s been a long ride to get Saudi multi-hyphenate Ahd Kamel’s directorial debut “My Driver and I” – which is premiering at the Red Sea Film Festival – onto the big screen.

Saudi actors Roula Dakheelallah and Mustafa Shehata, who co-star in the film, joined Variety’s Alex Ritman at the Variety Lounge presented by Film AlUla at Red Sea to speak about the drama, which provides a rare glimpse of Saudi society and social fabric in Jeddah during the 1980s and ’90s.

The film is inspired by Ahd Kamel’s real-life story, noted Dakheelallah, who plays Ahd’s alter-ego Salma, who grew up in a wealthy Jeddah family.

“She had a driver, whose name was Gamar, and he drove her around everywhere, and he knew every single detail about her life,” she said. And then, years went by, and they went their separate ways. Ahd traveled abroad, including to New York,...

Inspired by Saudi writer-director-producer Ahd Kamel’s childhood, the nostalgic coming-of-age story “My Driver & I” unfolds against the backdrop of Jeddah in the 1980s and ’90s and traces the relationship of a rebellious girl and the Sudanese chauffeur her affluent family hires as a driver. A more conventional-looking and less compelling watch than “Wadjda” (2012), the Saudi picture to which it is sure to be compared and in which Kamel played a key acting role, “Driver” lacks the convincing struggle against limitations depicted by director Haifaa Al Mansour’s earlier movie.

Indeed, where “Wadjda” was tart, “Driver” is over-sweet to the point of sentimentality. Despite some sad circumstances, just how easy and nice everything seems to be for the central family and their staff somewhat beggars belief. Nevertheless, further festival play is likely and the drama will disseminate widely in Arabic-speaking territories through Dubai-based pay TV and streaming service Osn+.

A bright,...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival kicked off its fourth edition on Thursday with the world premiere of Karim Shenawi’s Egyptian drama “The Tale of Daye’s Family” and a glitzy red carpet featuring Will Smith, Emily Blunt, Cynthia Erivo, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eva Longoria, Michelle Yeoh, Minnie Driver, Michael Douglas and Vin Diesel, the latter of whom received the festival’s Iconic Characters Award.

Diesel took to the stage after a warm introduction by his long-time collaborator Michelle Rodríguez, who said the two have “been creatively in rooms defending storytelling, people with our colored skin and the beauty of the streets and the people who don’t necessarily live by the rules of others.”

Michelle Rodriguez, Mohammed Al Turki and Eva Longoria attend the opening ceremony at the Red Sea Film Festival.

Accepting the award, the actor quipped about the star-filled room: “There might be more familiar faces...

Films from Saudi Arabia form the core of the Red Sea International Film Festival’s Arab Spectacular five-picture strand, which features world premieres of a trio of new Saudi titles exploring societal changes in the kingdom.

One case in point is “Hobal,” the new allegorical drama by Saudi director Abdulaziz Alshlahei (“The Tambour of Retribution”). The film follows a Bedouin family whose members are forced by its patriarch to live in isolation in the desert due to fear of an infectious disease during the 1990s when Saudi was starting to open up to the outside world.

Another Saudi social drama in the section is “My Driver and I,” the directorial debut of New York-trained Saudi multi-hyphenate Ahd Kamel. It tells the story of Salma — a young, privileged and rebellious Saudi girl — and her African driver, Gamar, who left his family and moved to Jeddah to earn a living. Set during the 1980s and 90s,...