The fight to get a controversial documentary released
How The Dissident’s real-life story of murder and conspiracy was rejected by nearly every major player
WHEN THE DISSIDENT, a documentary about the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, premiered at Sundance last year, it earned a rapturous reception. “The film was widely acclaimed,” remembers its director, Bryan Fogel. “Hillary Clinton was there. We received standing ovations. Really exceptional accolades. And then, essentially, none of the big global distributors stepped forward.”
A critically acclaimed film from an Oscar-winning director might seem like a sure thing. Fogel was under no illusions about why it wasn’t. “It is clear that it was due to business interests, fear of being hacked… it’s all laid out in the film, what the Saudis are doing [to their] opponents.” (Fogel’s film shows the advanced cyber-warfare tactic used by the Saudi Arabian government on perceived enemies.)
Thankfully, the film has been picked up by independent distributors, and so will see a release. “It’s disappointing that we didn’t have a big single global release,” Fogel says. “But we wound up with some wonderful international distributors. We have partnered with [indie distributor] Altitude in the UK, so it is going to be on Amazon Prime [here].”
Fogel’s film is unsparing on Saudi Arabia. It documents the shocking murder of Khashoggi in a Turkish consulate, which, according to reports in the US media, the CIA later concluded had been ordered directly by Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince. But the wider implications it draws are almost as disturbing — and have proved controversial for some studios.
“These themes are resonating in our current political environment,” says Fogel. “In this incredibly global state of business, business interests really take the place over any accountability for human rights.”
As well as killing, imprisoning or threatening journalists and activists, the film documents the Saudi government’s sophisticated information warfare (similar to Russia’s election-meddling), quashing dissenting opinions online in a country with a highly active population of social media users. Fogel notes, with a dark laugh, that his film has already been the victim of Saudi reviewbombers on IMDB. “Literally overnight, we’ve had about 1,000 one-star user reviews, written in poor English — all coming from outside the [US], where the film isn’t available,” he says.
It is, Fogel says, a story that needs to be seen and heard widely. “The good news is: the [story] seems to find a way.”