Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Dissident’ on VOD, a Vital, Urgent Documentary About Slain Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Finally, we can watch The Dissident — but only on demand, after its positive reception at Sundance 2020 failed to draw attention from any major streaming services. Seems they’re afraid the film, from Oscar-winning director Bryan Fogel (2017’s Icarus), is too incendiary in its criticism of Saudi Arabian royalty while telling the story of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose brutal murder in 2018 was quite likely ordered by Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in an attempt to quash political dissent. Netflix, HBO and the like looked away, fearing subscriber loss in the increasingly lucrative international streaming market; surprisingly, Amazon didn’t pick it up, considering owner Jeff Bezos also owns Khashoggi’s last employer, the Washington Post. But the movie will be seen, and a strong argument can be made that it absolutely should be seen.

THE DISSIDENT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: On Oct. 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi visited the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul to pick up paperwork for his impending wedding. His fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside. And waited. And waited. He never came out. Audio of what happened to him exists, but we don’t hear it. Be thankful — we do see bits of the transcript, and it’s horrifying. Khashoggi was suffocated and dismembered, his body apparently taken out of the consulate in pieces and burned, leaving little or no evidence.

Why? He had the gall to publicly criticize Mohammed Bin Salman’s tendency to silence those with differing views. Khashoggi essentially worked as an extension of the Saudi government, which controls all journalism in the country. But he and many other conscientious objectors found Twitter was an effective end-around against censorship — and 80 percent of Saudi citizens use the social media platform. By 2017, he feared for his safety and fled to the U.S., leaving behind his family; his wife divorced him. He soon began writing for the Post, and his reports further upset the Prince, characterized as a man with a progressive agenda, but who’s also a power-hungry and impatient ruler.

Away from home, he was a lonely man. He met Cengiz when she interviewed him at a conference, and they hit it off. Friends, colleagues and employers paint him as a dedicated man with a charmingly innocent smile, and a stalwart journalist of great credibility, and with valuable insider knowledge of the Saudi government. One of his closest cohorts was Omar Abdulaziz, a younger Saudi journalist who also fled, but to Montreal; he tells a significant portion of The Dissident story, and how they engaged in social media warfare, devising a way to fight back against Mohammed bin Salman’s army of Twitter trolls, who worked to squash dissenters’ voices. It would be his final effort in the battle for transparency and truth, his last time being “the voice of the voiceless.”

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: United Nations Human Rights expert Agnes Callamard reads from the horror transcript, and all we can do is weep. It’s the most upsetting audio recording we’ll never hear this side of Grizzly Man, in which Werner Herzog only speaks of the horror of listening to audio of Timothy Treadwell being killed and eaten by bears.

Performance Worth Watching: Abdulaziz breaks down crying during an interview; Cengiz remains composed, but melancholy as she speaks to Khashoggi’s noble character. Their presence lifts The Dissident far above many such biographical/activist documentaries.

Memorable Dialogue: An excerpt from Abdulaziz’s final text to Khashoggi, sent during the hours he first went “missing” at the consulate: “I don’t know what your fate is right now, only God knows… and only God knows the size of my pain and suffering.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The Dissident is a tremendous documentary, efficiently weaving together Khashoggi’s biography, a love story, Omar’s journey and the transformation of its subject from “reformer” to “dissident” over the course of two densely packed hours. Fogel avoids sensationalism and maintains a steady tone, communicating its tense, high-drama developments with even-handed credibility — e.g., how the Saudis used illicit software to spy on Jeff Bezos’ phone, or the grisly details of the premeditated plan to assassinate Khashoggi. It’s detailed without getting too far into the weeds.

The doc starts off a little slow and bleary, but picks up narrative momentum and clarity after about 30 minutes. It convincingly portrays Khashoggi as a humble, humane man, and Mohammed Bin Salman as a nemesis riled by provocation. And The Dissident is obviously just such a provocation, giving it a dangerous feel beneath its assured storytelling. Fogel also injects the film with the fodder to engage our hearts — a scene in which Cengiz, somber and reserved throughout the film, sits in her late fiancee’s favorite La-Z-Boy chair is quietly wrenching. Abdulaziz reveals that his work incited Saudi officials to arrest and torture his brothers and 22 of his friends — and confesses how he feels responsible for Khashoggi’s death, illustrating the ripple effects of cruelty and tragedy.

The story of oppressive rulers creating martyrs is, unfortunately for humanity, an old one. But The Dissident renders it fresh and fascinating for the 21st century. It underscores the essential role of the Fourth Estate in free society without getting preachy or self-righteous, and by focusing on a man who understood that truth is the most powerful weapons one can wield.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Dissident is a must-see.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Where to stream The Dissident