The Riyalists

The wealth and opulence of the Gulf States in the Middle East were built on the labor of cheap labor from foreign countries. In 2009, four young Nepali men left their villages for the Arab Gulf, their stories, like those of a few million that keep the country afloat, often disillusioning and, as often, empowering, captured in the film In Search of the Riyal. The Riyalists trace the trajectories of the four men since then and over 12 years, a chronicle of Nepali labor migration, illuminating the experiences for up to 3 million Nepali working Qatar (2022 FIFA venue), UAE and other Gulf States the last few decades.