Plot

A young woman bonds with her driver in Jeddah over shared dreams, unknowingly mirroring his struggles leaving family behind in Sudan while navigating Saudi's restrictions on women.

MY DRIVER & I is a coming-of-age story centering on two people who, on the surface, seem worlds apart - a young Jeddah girl (Salma) and her immigrant Sudanese driver (Gamar). Salma and Gamar are different in terms of gender, race, age and culture, yet over the course of the ten years during which Gamar drives Salma every day, they form a bond more constant than most of their friendships and stronger than most family relationships. However, as Salma begins to spread her wings during her final year of school, this bond is tested, bringing their opposing economic circumstances and social positions to the forefront.

At the beginning of the film, SALMA (7) is the only child of a well-off family living in Jeddah, a princess in the pink bedroom of her vast and beautiful home. She is young, curious, and a big fan of western pop culture and music. Her family employs GAMAR (25), who has recently emigrated from Sudan in order to earn a living for his wife and young daughter back home. Like Salma he also shares a passion for music, but his tastes are more traditional and Arab.

With Salma's father AHMAD away on business and her mother SARAH overwhelmed by anxieties, it is her new personal driver Gamar who takes a nervous Salma to her first day at school. At the end of an awful day, Gamar tries to cheer Salma up by bringing her to the city's Corniche, where he buys her a yo-yo and they bond over ice cream. Gamar is initially concerned that he will have to act as a nanny rather than a driver, but he eventually warms to Salma, seeing in her something that reminds him of his own baby daughter who lives across the sea.

Gamar simultaneously builds a shorthand with Sarah, who entrusts in him her secret smoking habit, something that he also shares, as well as the secret that has been weighing her down with guilt for many years - the tragic death of her and Ahmad's first son Sami, who drowned in their pool. Gamar also comes to gain Ahmad's trust and approval. From this time onward, Gamar becomes a constant presence in Salma's early life - he is somewhere between a surrogate father and the elder brother she doesn't even know she lost.

We catch up with Salma and Gamar ten years later: Salma is a fully-fledged teenager nearing adulthood and her close friendship with a now 35-year-old Gamar has blossomed. On her 17th birthday, as has become a tradition, Gamar takes Salma to buy ice cream on the way home from school. However, what Gamar couldn't hadn't planned is the presence of WALEED (17), a handsome, cool and somewhat goofy 17-year-old boy. He asks for her telephone number at the counter and it's at that moment it's clear that Salma has a crush on him of the intense kind that only a teenager can. A smitten Salma returns to Gamar, who saw her talking with Waleed and expresses his disapproval. However, Salma deflects the moral lesson and soon Gamar tells her what her real Birthday present is - he tells her the he'll give her a driving lesson.

When Salma and Gamar return home they are welcomed by Sarah and Ahmad, who has arrived early from a business trip as a surprise. Ahmad gives his daughter many Western CDs, as well as a diamond pendant that from that moment onward Salma wears close to her heart. Sarah, however, comments that this is Ahmad's way of buying his daughter's love in place of earning it by spending time with her. This causes an argument, and it's clear that the relationship between mother and daughter is a complicated one. Around this time we are also introduced to Salma's best friend HANAN (17) and the school's "bad girl" JOUMANA (17) who both Salma and Hanan openly disapprove of. It's clear that Hanan and Salma have been close for many years, and that Hanan well behaved girl who acts as a positive, responsible influence.

Also at this time in the story we get a deeper understand of Gamar's personal life. He has a friend called SALEM (35) who also happens to be Hanan's personal driver. During a catch up at a cafe in Al Balad, Gamar confides in Salem that he plans on moving back home to Sudan after the end of the school year. He will miss Salma and her family dearly, but he is also keenly aware that he doesn't want to be absent from his daughter's life. He hasn't taken holiday or been back home in a long time, and we see that he has been mainly communicating with his family through recorded cassettes seeing as his wife can't read or write. He hasn't yet informed Ahmad or Sarah about his intention to leave.

A few days later, Gamar takes Salma out for a second secret driving lesson. However, in the interim Salma has spoken with Waleed on the phone and told him when and where the lesson will take place. Gamar is of course very disapproving, yet it's too late to intervene. Of course, Salma tries to impress Waleed by driving fast and attempting sharp turns... and the inevitable happens - she crashes the car. Gamar is of course furious at Waleed, but, since it was his idea to illegally teach Salma how to drive, he takes the fall. Seeing as he doesn't tell Sarah and Ahmad the full truth, and they know this, he is forced to use his savings to repair the car. Sarah isn't stupid and knows that something strange happened and that it's somehow Salma's fault, so she decides that her daughter is not only grounded but also not ready to travel to a foreign country. She blocks Salma's application to a London university - making Salma feel even more trapped.

Fed up with Salma's antics with Waleed, who keeps trying to call the house but is mostly blocked by Gamar, Gamar becomes even more resolved that he will move back home to Sudan when Salma graduates and return to his own family.

Oblivious to his struggles, Salma stays focused on her crush and makes a plan to secretly meet Waleed at the family beach house. Gamar reluctantly drives her and Hanan out for the weekend - but when Waleed appears on a jet-ski, he wades into the water to stop the rendezvous.

However, the seaside conflict is interrupted when they are called back home by devastating news - Salma's father has had a heart failure. After driving home in tense silence, Salma and Gamar arrive at the family villa to find an ambulance outside in the driveway and Ahmad, the father figure to them all, already dead.

After a somber, traditional Islamic funeral and all the ceremony and mourning that goes with it, an devastated Salma shuts herself away in her room, away from the world. She misses school for a few days, until Gamar eventually pressures her, explaining that her father would never want her to act like this and throw her life away. On the way to school, Gamar and Salma bond melancholic-ally over both missing loved ones. Gamar asks her to please stay away from Waleed and boys - Salma reassures him that he doesn't need to say this. She and Waleed are over and she has been ignoring all of his calls.

When she returns to school, Joumana approaches Salma and confides in her that she also lost a parent. The girls bond, much to Hanan's distaste, and Hanan is even pushed away by Salma when she says something inconsiderate.

Salma begins to hang out with Joumana much more, and, after an evening spent at Salma's house, she invites Salma to her cousin's mixed party - a clandestine gathering where teenagers mingle across genders.

Salma manages to persuade Gamar to driver her to the party by telling her it's just a girls' night at a friend's house. Therefore, when they arrive Gamar is very upset and disappointed to see boys entering the villa and the real reason for the gathering. However, he dutifully waits outside, filled with anxiety - once again driven by a protective instinct and frustrated with this girl who has recently been constantly disobeying him.

Inside the party, Salma meets a fun teenage DJ boy called Abdullah and is happy in a way she hasn't been for a long time, dancing to the music. However, her mood soon crashes when she spots Waleed flirting with Joumana. She is devastated and confronts Joumana for betraying her, causing a scene. When she storms out to the yard, Waleed follows her and they talk for the first time since Ahmad's death. Waleed is hurt that Salma never picked up his calls.

Gamar eventually loses patience as the party drags on and heads inside to find Salma, who is with Waleed and clearly upset having worked herself into an emotional state. Gamar pushes Waleed away and tries to extract Salma, but she won't come with him - when he tries to carry her, she is embarrassed and reprimands him in front of her friends, calling him "just a driver". Gamar is visibly hurt and they drive home in stony silence.

Once they return to the villa, Gamar packs his things - he has had enough. He is done with this family and wants to be on his own. Meanwhile, Salma enters her room and finds that Sarah is waiting for her. Sarah begins to scold her daughter, but when Salma collapses in tears she stops. She moves over to her daughter and embraces her, consoles her.

When Salma wakes up, Sarah tells her that Gamar has gone. Salma tries to find out what happened and one of the other drivers, the Egyptian OSMAN (40) tells her that he left and that she of all people must understand why. She says that she doesn't, and Osman hints at it being her fault as she has caused him so much difficulty. He explains how Gamar used all his savings to repair the car she crashed and how he has done enough for her now. Salma is deeply shocked and wants to make amends, but it might be too late. She enters Gamar's now near-empty room and finds a tape that Gamar recorded for his daughter's birthday. She listens to him speaking to his real daughter and decides that she must track him down, even if only to return the cassette.

Osman drives Salma to school, where at the school gate she seeks out Hanan. She tries to repair their damaged friendship, and, once she sees that Hanan has forgiven her, then asks Hanan's driver and Gamar's friend Salem to take her to Gamar.

They head to the poorer area of Al Balad and seek Gamar at the men's cafe that he usually frequents. It is a coffee shop where women aren't allowed, but Salma has never been one to follow the rules. She strides outside and up to Gamar, who is shocked to see her and quickly asks that they sit down inside the car. Salma gives Gamar his tape back, but he is not happy to see her. She pleads him to come back and to forgive her. He tells her that it's time for her to grow up and that sometimes apologizing isn't enough - she needs to genuinely learn from her mistakes. She doesn't need him anymore. He won't to come back.

Back home, Salma begins to change her ways. She begins praying, cleaning her room, and speaking with her mother and staff in a more adult way. She finally summons up the courage to tell Sarah why Gamar left and what actually happened with the car accident. Sarah understands and forgives her daughter and doesn't punish her.

In return, Sarah finally reveals to her daughter she once had a brother who fell in the pool as a baby and drowned. Salma is stunned by this secret in her own family, but the intimacy brings her closer to her mother and Salma slowly resolves it's time to grow up. Seeing these changes in her daughter, Sarah changes her mind and submits Salma's foreign university application on her behalf. However, with her new-found sense of responsibility, Salma is upset at her mother for doing this as she has decided that she doesn't want to be selfish and leave her mother alone.

Around this time Salma also records Gamar an apology tape, which she gets to him through Osman, who pretends that it's another tape from his family in Sudan that he'd left behind in his rush to leave the villa. Gamar listens to it, surprised but also touched. The next day, when Salma is looking at the yo-yo in her room, Gamar arrives unannounced. Salma is so happy to see him, yet tries to restrain her emotions. He asks her whether she would like to go for ice-cream on the Corniche as they usually do.

While watching the sun set and eating ice-cream, Salma and Gamar talk for what they both silently know is the last time. He encourages her to spread her wings and take control of her own life by grabbing the opportunities presented to her and heading to university abroad. He says he'll drive her there himself if he has to. She silently agrees, and they share a bonding moment as they watch the sea, just like how they did so many years ago.