RIYADH: It is life imitating art — and art imitating life: a story about work burnout created work burnout, but for Saudi filmmaker Rwad Khalid, every sleepless night paid off. 

Arab News spoke with Khalid, who joked about the literal and metaphorical Mary Poppins-like bag she always carries. In real life, she hauls cameras and “other things” everywhere.

Her dedication to her craft has paid off — Khalid's seven-minute fantasy-drama-comedy animation, “Business Bag,” will be screened at the Red Sea International Film Festival in her home country.

A 2025 graduate of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh with a degree in film and animation, she is passionate about crafting Saudi-centric stories that explore universal social themes through animation.

The film is produced by fellow classmates Linah Alqudari, Manar Alzahrani, and Dana Al-Omran, as part of their graduation project. Each brought their own distinct animation style, and the four of them worked together to weave a cohesive final look. Khalid and Alqudari wrote the script.

Her team unexpectedly became experts in the legal world when they tried to secure the copyright to vintage Japanese music from a deceased singer to use in their film. Determined not to take money from their families, they pooled their own savings and university allowances to fund the project.

“Business Bag” follows a young man overworked and over-caffeinated, drowning in office work pressure and routine — until, on a short walk outside the office, his bag suddenly flies away in the dead of night. As he chases it across Riyadh, he rediscovers the city’s beauty and learns to rebalance his life.

Work-related burnout is universal, the team determined, which is why the film barely uses dialogue. Instead, it leans on music and street sounds of bustling Riyadh.

The entire animation process was swift. 

“Other animators would tell me, like, ‘No way — it’s crazy. You did this in only two months? That’s impossible,’” Khalid said. “But it was possible, after all.”

Khalid said many people have asked why the main character is a man, given that the film was created by a team of women. 

“I knew I wanted Riyadh to be a main character. I also knew I wanted it to take place at night. Logically, I wouldn’t place a woman in that space in Riyadh at night,” she said. 

 “Let the boy suffer,” she added with a laugh.