The Dissident (2020): Riveting, Shocking Must-See

I don’t often write about documentaries, because I don’t see all that many. I’m usually not drawn to the genre – either on the level of feature films or even on TV. But sometimes, I hear such enthusiastic recommendations or, as now, I’m drawn to the subject matter for one reason or another. And I’m often pleasantly surprised. That’s the case with today’s film.

Actually “pleasant” doesn’t quite fit the subject of the film under review here: The Dissident, a new who-dunnit-style thriller of a documentary about Saudi Arabian exile and Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered by the Saudis two years ago. He was killed for for writing honestly – which means critically - about the human rights abuses within Saudi King Salman’s absolute monarchy. It is an increasingly riveting investigation of that event, which really moved me by the end. I experienced a combination of rational and emotional outrage that in a certain kind of way – because the exposé connected so well, I guess -  was quite gratifying. 

The Dissident is written and directed by Bryan Fogel, who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary three years ago for his film Icarus, about the Olympic doping scandal. For Icarus, Fogel was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Journalism; the film also received a special jury prize, the first ever “Orwell Award,” at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, with a citation that stated: “In a world of post-truth, doublespeak, and alternative facts, the jury decided to create the Orwell Reward to recognize a film that reveals the truth at a time when the truth is no longer a commodity.” Using that criteria, The Dissident may be in line for another Orwell Award.  

It is a well crafted and powerful movie. So much so, that even though I knew the outlines of the story going in, it was shocking. You will be too, I expect – which is a good thing. Fogel’s research, some of it revealed for the first time in this film, uncovered the untold story behind the “labyrinth of deceit” that has shrouded what really happened and why. 

Like Icarus, Fogel’s new film is intended as a wake-up call. On one level, it is a terrific crime investigation and political expose. It describes the background and career of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, his relationship with the Salman regime, his disaffection due to the increasingly brutal political repression within the kingdom, and his eventual decision – in light of death threats - to flee the country in 2017 and relocate to the US. The documentary makes clear just why the regime was threatened by Khashoggi’s writings. In Fogel’s words. “To the tyranny of Saudi Arabia, Jamal Khashoggi was a dangerous man [who] threatened the regime’s control of their image at a time when they’re investing so much money and time in whitewashing their crimes so they can seem “progressive.”

The Dissident follows the investigation into a crime the kingdom of Saudi Arabia hereafter, “KSA”] vehemently denied. It meticulously traces the evidence, using press releases, public statements, exclusive interviews, and previously undisclosed cctv videos, audio recordings, and film clips – including a previously unreleased transcript of an audio recording made as the murder transpired.

  This evidence clearly establishes that Khashoggi’s killing was a state sponsored assassination, most likely ordered by King Salman’s son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - commonly known as “MBS” - the de facto CEO of the kingdom. The murder occurred on October 2, 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi had initially gone there a few days earlier to obtain papers confirming his divorce from his wife in KSA, so he could remarry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Sengiz. He was told to return on October 2 to pick up the documents, which he did. Sengiz waited outside for several hours, but Khashoggi never returned. Despite delicate diplomatic technicalities and Saudi lies [e.g. “He left the consulate via a backdoor”], Turkish authorities investigated.  So did Khashoggi’s employer, The Washington Post.Both concluded he was murdered at the consulate. Among other things, they learned that shortly after Khashoggi’s first visit to the consulate, a call went out to the KSA executive; and that a “kill-team” of fifteen Saudi’s had arrived in Istanbul by private jet the day before Khashoggi’s appointment and this group had entered the consulate a few hours before Khashoggi did. The Turks even obtained a recording of the meeting during which Khashoggi was killed.  Both the CIA and, eventually, the UN investigated as well. All came to the same conclusion. Eventually, KSA acknowledged he died at the consulate but averred that it was an accident. “These things happen”, opined the Saudi foreign minister.               

On another level, the movie is quite personal, showing how Khashoggi’s life after his emigration to the US – separate from his prolific writing and his public career, separate from the high esteem in which he was held by US and international journalists, and the warm relationships he developed with other emigres and political experts - was a very lonely one.  The film details the subsequent romance between Khashoggi and Sengiz, a PhD student he met while at a conference in Turkey a year after his emigration;  how for both their relationship brought happiness into their lives; and how they planned a future together splitting their time  between Istanbul and Virginia.  Khashoggi was murdered the day before their planned wedding day.

On a third level, The Dissident explores a facet of spycraft that should resonate with anyone concerned about state invasions of personal privacy or, as manifested by the recent reveal of Russia’s penetration of major US governmental agencies and corporations, anyone worried about the ability of international malefactors to hack pretty much anything and everything.  This is the story of another Saudi dissident, Omar Abdulazis, who became a young friend and colleague of Khashoggi.  

Abdulazis came to Canada as a student in 2009. After he began to publicly criticize the political repression within KSA, he became a target. In 2014, Canada granted him political asylum. By 2018. he was working with Khashoggi on projects to counter KSA’s disinformation campaign (extolling the “liberalism” being advanced by MBS), its nearly absolute control of social media, and its suppression of independent voices.. A few months later his smartphone was hacked by his home country. The Saudis were able to monitor virtually all of Abdulazis’ communications by using Pegasus, a spying program they secretly embedded into his smartphone, able to capture virtually all texts, calls, documents and other stored data on his device  Pegasus is state of the art spyware developed by the Israeli firm, NSO Group,and sold to governmental agencies throughout the world. The Saudis also famously embedded Pegasus on the personal phone of Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon, supposedly the richest person in the world and, not incidentally, the owner of The Washington Post, later seeking to blackmail him on the basis of information so obtained.   

MBS and his government were concerned about the collaboration between Khashoggi and Abdulazis, whose efforts were having a real effect inside KSA, undermining the fictions peddled by the government. Khashoggi, writing for the influential Washington Post, was a particular thorn in their side. Based on the intel they obtained from their months-long hack of Abdulazis’ phone, Khashoggi had to go. 

There have been little to no international repercussions for KSA or MBS to date. Rather, it’s business as usual. Even with bi-partisan outrage about the murder, the Trump administration (and most leaders of the first world) have remained supportive of the regime. In July 2019, President Trump vetoed three Congressional resolutions that would have halted US arms deals with Saudi Arabia as a reprisal. From the time of the murder in October 2018, through his interviews with Bob Woodward in early 2020 , Trump has said that money, not human life or freedom of expression, is the most important thing, i.e. the millions of dollars that KSA spends on American armaments and, of course, its huge oil reserves.  Although KSA eventually announced that it prosecuted and convicted a number of people for Khashoggi’s murder, the world has to take their word for it,since all the proceedings were secretly conducted out of public view. MBS himself ordered the prosecution and, needless to say, was never implicated in his own investigation.  

In fact, because of the tremendous financial influence of KSA, The Dissident, which opened to ecstatic, admiring
reviews at Sundance last January had had a hard time finding a distributor. 

The cast of characters assembled by Fogel and his team to tell this fascinating tale is quite impressive, among them Turkish officials such as that country’s minister of justice, President Erdogan’s communications director, and Istanbul’s chief prosecutor; plus the former managing director of Al Jazeera; the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post; John Brennan - CIA chief from 2013-2017), Agnes Callamard – the UN “Special Rapporteur” who prepared its report on the assassination; and not least, two of the most prominent characters in the story, Omar Abdulazis and Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. 

Says Nick Allen (of RogerEbert.com): “Completely Shocking and gripping. Thriller paced. Like the best of journalism … needs to be seen by as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.” 

Says me: This one is well worth your time folks.

1 hour 59 minutes

Grade: A

In limited theatrical release (where theaters are open) beginning Christmas day; streaming beginning January 8, 2021 – possibly via video-on-demand virtual screening. Check the official site for details.