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- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
Summary The 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is at the center of the documentary that also looks at the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States through the years including the Trump administration and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
Kingdom of Silence
Season 1 Premiere: 2020
82
User Score
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Summary The 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is at the center of the documentary that also looks at the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States through the years including the Trump administration and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
82
100% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
82
100% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The invaluable documentary “Kingdom of Silence” reminds us Khashoggi’s life was so much more than the shocking details of his death. Told in a straightforward, historically and journalistically sound manner, director Rick Rowley’s documentary is as much about the complicated, co-dependent and sometimes toxic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia as it about the man himself.
It is extraordinary to view the trajectory of modern relations between the Middle East and the United States through one man's career. But Rowley's assessment of Khashoggi through "Kingdom of Silence" acknowledges the profile's incompleteness, as any truthful portrait of a man and his contradictions would be. ... So many aspects of the man are unknowable and a wealth of him left unsaid. Such ambiguity only makes the film that more absorbing and visceral to experience.
Whether you believe Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist assassinated in Istanbul in 2018, to have been idealistic, naive or foolish, “Kingdom of Silence” is likely to spur a slew of emotions. A compelling profile not just of Khashoggi, but of the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia, the documentary charts a quixotic path, from young reporter to self-exiled critic of his homeland.
Aided by an impressive roster of participants (including John Brennan and Richard Clark), it provides a clear and enraging picture of the tangled geopolitical dynamics which Khashoggi helped define, and which ultimately ensnared him.
It's the latest in a series of significant "How we got here" documentaries from producer Alex Gibney (just out with "Agents of Chaos"), here teaming with author Lawrence Wright.
Filmmaker Rick Rowley lays out the chronology carefully — if not always in tidy chapters, considering its many twists and turns.
Rowley’s impressive access, and the film’s brisk contextualization of relationships and political alliances, can make it difficult to assess how much weight to accord each statement, or to decide what to think of Khashoggi — which may be part of the point. ... But the film’s primary virtue is in presenting many friends and colleagues of Khashoggi who illuminate his ideals, ventures and personal relationships. ... Khashoggi’s international life, often lived warily, means that no one documentary could capture the full picture.
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Production Company:
- Jigsaw Productions
- Showtime Documentary Films
Initial Release Date: 2020
Number of seasons: 0 Seasons
Rating: TV-MA
Genres:
Awards
News & Documentary Emmy Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cinema for Peace Awards
• 1 Nomination
