One of the mysteries of “Courier” is what is the significance of the recurring African theme. Africa seems to be irrelevant to all the changes in the Soviet society during the perestroika period in the late 1980s when the movie was shot.

There are two possible explanations for the African motif in this film:

The first is that the USSR had the expansion of its sphere of international influence as one of its top priorities. That involved investing financial and human resources in the third world countries. As Karen Shakhnazarov told us during the interview, “These African fantasies was that last little bit that connected Ivan and his father, who went to work in Africa, which at that time was quite common… The Soviet Union has collaborated with many African countries, building factories, dams … and a lot of our engineers went to work there.” It was one of the common features of the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. But still for this particular film, this is only a small part of the answer to the question “Why Africa?”.

The second possible reason for the director’s choice to bring up Africa in this movie is to draw some parallels between it and the romantic nature of Ivan. Through his fantasies about Africa, Ivan tries to get away from the gray reality of his life.