From Omeleto.
A man misses his family.
RIDER is used with permission from Edward Whelan. Learn more at https://instagram.com/edwhelan_film.
It’s Indra’s birthday, but he’s not really celebrating. He’s an immigrant working as a food delivery rider in London, eking out a living with each gig and ride. He video-chats with his wife Saarusha and the children he left behind, which leaves him feeling lonely and discombobulated.
Unbeknownst to his faraway family, Indra finds some consolation with Nina, a woman he’s met in England. But the stress of his divided life and the constant hustle catch up to him when he’s attacked on a delivery and has nowhere to go for true comfort.
Directed and written by Edward Whelan, this moody short drama is equal parts gritty and poetic, charting the existence of a food delivery rider, zigzagging across the metropolis as fast as he can to make a living. As he navigates his job amid the city’s nocturnal bustle, with all its opportunities and hidden threats, he also grapples with the emotional weight of the life he left behind.
The storytelling unfolds on the night of the protagonist’s birthday, a time when most people celebrate with friends and family, often reflecting on the past and looking ahead to the future. But Indra has no family or community in his immediate vicinity, being an immigrant. The film’s tenor is thoughtful, but it’s also infused with a dynamism in the camerawork and editing, capturing Indra’s main reason for being in London: work. His life as a rider in the gig economy is frantic, sometimes punishing and often isolating, as emphasized by the shadowy, shrouded cinematography, muted colors and nervy handheld camerawork.
In the video chats with his loving wife and children, we can sense his wistfulness, displacement, and loneliness. But the narrative surprises us when it introduces perhaps the one spot of comfort in his emotionally starved life, his girlfriend Nina. Their interactions are full of kindness, understanding and tenderness, but it’s not enough for Indira. It’s not just loneliness he feels, but a sense of never belonging, which is even more alienating. As Indra, actor Chaneil Kular captures the essence of a man divided, aching with a schism that is becoming unsustainable emotionally. When he has a crisis, he realizes just how alone in the world he is. What he seeks in the aftermath, though, reveals where his heart truly is.
Introspective and evocative, RIDER is suffused with the loneliness of the city, of being a stranger in a strange land. Indra’s travails are external, with the threat of being a target of crime or harassment. But they’re also existential, with his family, his London companion and the guilt of compartmentalization building up within him. His story explores themes of identity and displacement, and his journey in the film makes them emotionally palpable, as he inches towards wholeness and belonging.
