X
- 2020
- PG-13
- Vertical Entertainment
- 1 h 59 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Vertical Entertainment
- 1 h 59 m
Summary When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world piece together the clues to a murder and expose a global cover up.
Directed By: Bryan Fogel
Written By: Mark Monroe, Bryan Fogel
- 2020
- PG-13
- Vertical Entertainment
- 1 h 59 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Vertical Entertainment
- 1 h 59 m
The Dissident
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world piece together the clues to a murder and expose a global cover up.
Directed By: Bryan Fogel
Written By: Mark Monroe, Bryan Fogel
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
81
94% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
81
94% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Although The Dissident is, arguably, unnecessarily juiced-up with the editing and scoring of a Hollywood thriller, the excesses are balanced by the procedural rigour worthy of a crack prosecutor.
The Dissident is riveting, but it’s also a moving testament to a man whose courage burned too brightly to die with him.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 User Ratings
7.8
87% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
13% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 User Ratings
7.8
87% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
13% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
An important story, it kept me on the edge of my seat. Well paced, easy to follow and not overdramatized.
Report
Bryan Fogel’s new documentary painstakingly – and painfully – traces the moments up to and following Khashoggi’s murder.
The Dissident explodes genres by combining them, equal parts political analysis, murder investigation, cyber thriller and paean to free speech. It also celebrates the life of late journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who tirelessly gave a voice to the voiceless.
The Dissident holds few new revelations but presents its case with enough infuriating evidence and storytelling power to make it worthwhile.
Jamal Khashoggi was a complex, even contradictory human being, and his death an affront to freedom and decency. Does the world need two documentaries about him, coming in rapid succession? Maybe not. But you wouldn’t go wrong by watching either one.
Amid all these narrative threads Fogel occasionally loses sight of what should be the beating heart of this film: Khashoggi himself, who often comes through as an ill-defined figure with relatively ill-defined politics and views.
As much as we think we know about the gruesome, unimaginable murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey, there's more that we don't, and it's even more shocking than we ever thought. Director Bryan Fogel's chilling documentary about the incident, what prompted it, and the fallout that has come from it -- both politically and personally for those who knew him -- is staggeringly infuriating. One can't help but wonder how those behind this killing could be so unspeakably cruel and cold-hearted, and all over differences in opinion and outlook about the scope of democracy in the writer's homeland. The film approaches this story from multiple angles, showing how they're interrelated and presenting them in a layered, progressive pattern that grows ever more damning and upsetting with each new revelation. This release is one that should make us all mad while we're watching it. How can we allow such acts to continue in this day and age? If we can't bring a halt to such atrocities, one can't help but wonder what kind of future we might all have.
Report
The world was rocked by the revelation that Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered and dismembered in Istanbul’s Saudi consulate in 2018. This doc exposes the evidence behind this political crime, while profiling his brave outspoken criticism of the Saudi Arabian government. In addition to assembling interviews with government officials and others who’ve been affected by the country’s oppressive policies, the film uses elaborate animation to help broaden understanding and ominous music to add to the drama. At almost 2 hours, it could have been tightened for a more powerful effect. It sends the messages about freedom of speech numerous times and has repetitive statements that just slow the pace. Even so, it’s an informative film about outrageous corruption in the Middle East.
Report
Below par documentary, with unsettling reverence for corporatism and totalitarisme
The film brings nothing new to the core story of khashoggi´s last days. Even if you didn't follow the story closely, the basic understanding of the story, that most of the world got through osmosis won't be challenged or expanded upon here.
Beside the trivial retelling of the sequence of events, the film tells the story a young Saudi activist. Which leads into short descriptions of troll-armies and the modern role of social media.
This is the only interesting part of the documentary, but it also leads into some major problems. To celebrate platforms like Twitter and Youtube, know for their mass censorship of anyone who doesn't all align with their political ideology - in a movie that is at its core about free speech - is spine-chilling.
The dissonance between watching a film dealing with totalitarisme and censorship while being subjected to a a corporate propaganda product is unsettling.
This feeling is only made worse as the movie start to idolize Jeff Bezos for cancelling an investment in Saudi Arabia, without ever bringing up why he would invest in a inhumane dictatorship in the first place. Just like it's never brings up how books challenging the corporate-democrat views are systematically purged from his Amazon sites. Or how his employees are treated.
Finally the obligatory Trump-bashing is ofcourse baked into this corporate product. Pretending that decades of arms and war profiteering is somehow a right or left wing question, or has to do specifically with the current administration is just insulting to the viewers. And a total misrepresentation of the issue.
It seems that everything from documentaries to comic-book-movies need to incorporate the same MSNBC talking-points to be produced in Hollywood today.
As a consequence the Dissident feels very much like every other hollow, mass produced hollywood product.
Report
Everyone behind this film is not neutral to Saudi Arabia
The US intelligence report also proved that there is no evidence for these allegations
So a fake movie
Report
Production Company
Orwell Productions,
Diamond Docs,
Human Rights Foundation
Release Date Dec 25, 2020
Duration 1 h 59 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Tagline The Untold Story of the Murder That Shook the World
Awards
Dublin International Film Festival
• 6 Wins & 6 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 3 Nominations
Satellite Awards
• 3 Nominations
