From Omeleto.
A delivery rider robs a burrito joint.
MIDNIGHT RIDE is used with permission from Alessandro Farrattini Pojani. Learn more at https://imdb.com/name/nm7724053.
Saverio is an Italian living in London, scraping a living together by delivering food orders and dealing drugs. He’s always on the move for both businesses, though he takes time to chat with Amber, who works at the burrito place he delivers for.
But after one delivery, he discovers that his bike has been stolen, along with the drugs he has stowed away on it. The discovery sends him on a frantic search for his bike, but Saverio can’t find it anywhere. After trying to get money from his mother and friends and getting messages from the people he deals for, Saverio decides to rob the burrito place. But he soon discovers that he was the one taken for a ride.
Directed and written by Alessandro Farrattini Pojani, this gritty urban drama is a character portrait of a hustler in the city, working multiple avenues of opportunity to make a living and stay afloat. Gliding through the streets on his bike, Saverio is like a modern cowboy, working alone and always on the move, responsive to any changes in the wind.
Filmed with a gritty, dynamic naturalism, the storytelling emphasizes Saverio’s shiftiness as a character, especially as he deftly and stealthily juggles his delivery and dealing duties. The film takes advantage of the nocturnal setting to play up a sense of adventure, the desolation of the urban environment and Saverio’s isolation as a foreigner. He makes some connections, chatting with Amber, played by actor Nancy Farino with equal parts friendliness and wariness. But these human moments are tucked in between frantic rush deliveries and furtive deals.
Though the film moves quickly in pacing, Saverio’s arc is kickstarted when he loses his bike and finds himself in a panic about his lack of money and the loss of the drugs he deals for a third party. As Saverio, actor Alessandro Maria Rossi portrays a resourceful, street-savvy smooth operator who finds himself in a hard place. Humbled and shamed when his calls for help go unheeded, he resorts to stealing from the restaurant he delivers for. But he soon discovers that he is the one who has been taken for a ride.
Compelling and absorbing to watch, MIDNIGHT RIDE ends on Saverio’s note of realization — that the one person he connected with on some level isn’t who he thought she was. We come away with a sense of a pitiless, lonely urban environment, whose harshness drives people to use their ingenuity and surface friendliness to accomplish betrayal and distrust. Saverio’s heartbroken look isn’t just about the money or drugs he lost, but his own loss in his belief in humanity.
