Title: A Hologram for the King
Rating: R
Directed by: Tom Tykwer
Written by: Tom Tykwer
Based on the novel by: Dave Eggers
Starring: Tom Hanks, Alexander Black and Sarita Choudhury
Release Date: 4/22/2016
Running Time: 97 minutes
In recession-ravaged 2010, American businessman ALAN CLAY (Tom Hanks), broke, depressed and freshly divorced, arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to close what he hopes will be the deal of a lifetime. His mission: sell a state-of-the-art holographic teleconferencing system to the Saudi government.
Adrift and alone in an unfamiliar land, Alan befriends taxi driver YOUSEF (Alexander Black), who chauffeurs him through the desert to the “King’s Metropolis of Economy and Trade,” a surreal ghost town of vacant skyscrapers and half-completed construction projects. Baffled by the bureaucratic reception he gets at the so-called “Welcome Center,” Alan struggles to figure out why his small IT support team is being forced to spend its days in a sweltering tent as it preps for the big presentation. Worse, because of the Saudi way of doing business, he’s unclear if the king will ever show up for the long-scheduled meeting.
Back in Jeddah, the stressed-out salesman winds up in the hospital, where he is treated by the beautiful and empathetic Muslim doctor ZAHRA HAKEM (Sarita Shoudhury). As Alan gets to know his new Saudi friends better, cultural barriers break down and he begins to contemplate the possibility of a fresh start in a land where tradition and modernity meet in perplexing ways.
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