Khashoggi documentary ‘ The Dissident’ is essential viewing

It’s hard to decide what’s most shocking in “The Dissident,” Bryan Fogel’s urgent, gripping new documentary about the horrific murder of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Of course, there are the terrifying details of the killing itself, chillingly recounted here through transcripts of recordings from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where Khashoggi was suffocated and dismembered with a bone saw. A few examples: The transcripts note laughter as the murderers strategized in advance how they’d dismember the body, pondering whether the hips would fit into a bag. And later, a Turkish official tells us, the killers ordered 70

pounds of meat from a well-known Istanbul restaurant, presumably “to mask the smell of a burning corpse.”

Then there are the detailed revelations from Omar Abdulaziz, a young associate of Khashoggi’s, about the extent of the regime’s efforts to silence its critics, including the torture of his own younger brother and the arrest of more than 20 of his friends back in Saudi Arabia. And the descriptions of extensive Saudi hacking efforts, including the infiltration of the cellphone of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Then there’s this stark statement at the end of the film: “To date there have been no global sanctions or punishment against Saudi Arabia for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”

If “The Dissident” were a fictional thriller rather than a documentary, one can imagine a studio head asking the screenwriters to perhaps tone down the grisly details, for the sake of plausibility.

But it’s all too real, and Fogel, who won an Oscar for his previous film, “Icarus,” about sports doping in Russia, doesn’t hesitate to go bold. This is not a dry film: Fogel employs pounding music at tense moments, and uses lively graphics and dramatic flourishes like a CGI battle between flies and bees to illustrate a Twitter propaganda war. But it does not feel superfluous.

“The Dissident,” a Briarcliff Entertainment release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America. Running time: 117 minutes.

Taylor Jewell / Associated Press Director Bryan Fogel, left, and Hatice Cengiz promote “The Dissident,” a film about slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.