A Hologram for the King

Sales manager Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) is tasked with selling a holographic teleconferencing system to King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia. Even without his trip to the desert, the 54-year-old is going through a rough patch: on top of the recent financial crisis, he is dealing with personal crises including a failed marriage, a house sold far below its value, and questionable outsourcing deals as manager of a bicycle manufacturer. Midlife crisis galore! In addition to these problems, Alan is plagued by jet lag, a cyst on his back, and alcohol abuse. While waiting for days for appointments with business partners, the beleaguered sales representative meets his driver Yousef and the beautiful doctor Dr. Zahra Hakeem. Impressed by these encounters and influenced by the new cultural impressions, the meeting with the king becomes increasingly secondary for Alan... "Director Tom Tykwer doesn't bother with fundamental political and economic issues. That's fortunate. Tykwer sees the trip to the desert as a research expedition. He lets his regular cameraman Frank Griebe revel in beautiful images [...]. Parallel to this external splendor—the film was shot mostly in Morocco, by the way—Tykwer explores the soul of his hero." (Wolfgang Höbel, on: spiegel.de) "Hanks is often cast as the dependable American everyman type. Here, he shows a darker, more anxious side to that character. It is one of his richest recent performances." (Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent)