THE REAL-LIFE THRILLER EVERYONE SHOULD SEE
WITH more news stories emerging almost every day about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a new documentary about the whole disgraceful business, The Dissident is nothing if not timely.
Khashoggi was a courageous columnist and commentator who deplored the human rights abuses presided over by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (folksily known as ‘MBS’) and paid for his outspoken candour with his life. In October 2018 he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get documents he needed for his impending marriage, but never came out alive.
Bryan Fogel’s film establishes that Khashoggi was almost certainly killed on the direct orders of MBS, and his corpse burnt. In one macabre detail, we learn that the consulate ordered a huge consignment of meat on the same day, which was probably cooked to mask the stench of burning human flesh.
Fogel is a hugely accomplished documentary-maker whose 2017 film Icarus, about doping in the world of sport, won an Oscar. The Dissident is researched and made with the same rigour, and although a throbbing percussive score is overdone, it does add a kind of thriller vibe to a film that should be seen by as wide an audience as possible.
The same cannot be said of Wander Darkly I’m a fan of both Sienna Miller and Diego Luna, who play a couple in an edgy relationship whose lives are torn apart in a fatal road accident. They are both reliably excellent, but Tara Miele’s film is a confusing hybrid of psychological thriller, creepy ghost story and sentimental romance. Miller’s character lurches through much of it certain that she is dead, and is looking at earthly events from an unhappy afterlife. Long before the end, I’d begun to feel the same way myself.
Raya And The Last Dragon is a Disney animation that feels as if it might have been pieced together from the stuff they cut out of Mulan. I can’t claim to have seen too many films about a girl and her cute woodlouse companion trying to bring dragons back to life, but in all other respects it’s standard Disney fare. The Dissident premieres tomorrow at the online glasgow Film Festival, and is on general release next month. Wander Darkly is available on streaming platforms, and Raya And The Last Dragon is on Disney+