'Head to Head' is a classic Middle Eastern slapstick comedy film

Arabian comedies are known to be direct and entertaining, with lots of slapstick humor and subtle social commentaries. When action and thrillers are combined, such comedies are ridiculous enough to surpass Bollywood Masala movies. 

One of the newcomer directors from Saudi Arabia is Malik Nejer, who came to the spotlight for his animated series Masameer, which humorously criticises social issues. 

Netflix is distributing his latest flick, Head to Head, where the story revolves around a hostage exchange going awry.

The film's protagonists are Fayadh and Darwish, a car mechanic and driver working for a chauffeur company. They hate each other for their jobs but must work together after a tragedy. 

Fayadh, even though unqualified, is suddenly hired as CEO of his company by the owner's eccentric son. So the first task he gives Darwish is to pick up the owner from the airport. 

But he mistakenly picks up an old drug lord, who was exiled to Russia for 20 years and returned to Saudi Arabia by his criminal son, Jack of Diamonds. Meanwhile, the owner and his assistant are chauffeured by the Diamonds crew.

In these pickup errors, the only way to correct them is to exchange the hostages. Jack of Diamonds tells Fayadh to bring his father to Bathaikha, the sin city of Saudi Arabia. 

But the whole exchange goes awry when the old man dies in their car, resulting in a shootout. Fayadh and Darwish still have to rescue their owner from the gang to save their skins, so they enlist the help of the con man Abu Ghraib, spy Aboud, and demolition expert Luqman. 

Darwish was only looking forward to meeting his love, Latifa, before the job, and somehow Latifa becomes entangled in their chaos too.

The whole film's plot is absurd to the core. Fayadh was just an ordinary, crooked mechanic who became CEO overnight when he was about to be fired. 

Darwish was going to elope with his lover, but he was stuck in Bathaikha, moving the dead body of the drug lord. Darwish's lover Latifa is planning an escapade at first, but she is running into Diamond's stronghold to retrieve her passport in front of Darwish. Almost every scene is chaotic but funny as well.

Head to Head constantly includes Spaghetti Western flavours throughout the film, aligning with this type of humor. For a mid-budget Saudi comedy, that's thoughtful and ingenious. 

Ten minutes of the last thirty minutes of the film might seem like it's going to be a bad ending, but Latifa arrives on the scene and saves the day. 

This is a bold move considering the limited female representation in Saudi films. Head to Head is 1.5 hours long and has some predictable plots, but it's a well-made short comedy film for slapstick humor fans.

contact.iftekhar.tne@gmail.com