This had a travelogue element to it.... I haven't read the book, so don't know how it compares...

But I have been there on business, half a dozen of trips over 18 months, when I used to be in banking... It captures a lot of the feeling of being an outsider there on business... The way the business side of things is handled...

I didn't like the side-kick character too much... I think he was a bit too over the top, but i suppose that's the problem with this movie, the comedy doesn't really land... There are also some serious themes... There is some subtle portrayal of the racism in that country... The way the guide/driver Yousef was dissmissed could have been just a class thing, but it also could have been an identity thing, given that talk about revolution when they were in the desert, as most people there have shown no sign of rebelling... it is far too opressive a place and the only stories you here of opposition are from even more regressive religious types, not some comedian hispter 😂...

Then there were the migrant workers around... Which should have been more prominant, as they are a big part of the workforce... This also doesn't sit well with the comedy element, although the dismissive comment the driver makes of them, mirrors the way he was dissmissed at the office... Nice touch...

The Western expat lifestyle stuff seemed pretty accurate from what I've heard from people who lived there... A lot of losers partying like crazy, trying to forget where they are... 😁

Not a pleasant country, but ultimately, normal people have more in common with one another around the world than what differenciates them... But I still think they would have to be very discrete about how they would continue their relationship... It's a very strange place... Stranger than anywhere I've been in Asia or Africa...

Not somewhere that will be normal anytime soon