''The Dissident'' is a 2020 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed and produced by Bryan Fogel. It follows the

assassination of Jamal Khashoggi On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives. His body w ...

and Saudi Arabia's effort to control international

dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

on January 24, 2020. It was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on December 25, 2020, followed by

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

on January 8, 2021, by Briarcliff Entertainment.

Synopsis

The film follows the assassination of

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi (13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, Saudi dissidents, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab New ...

and Saudi Arabia's effort to control international

. Central to the documentary is the story of the Saudi activist and video blogger, Omar Abdulaziz. According to Bryan Fogel, the movie's aim is to look "deeply into Khashoggi's murder and the ramifications of it." While a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

report released by the

Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021, and ended on January 20, 2025. Biden, a member of the Democr ...

implicated Saudi crown prince

Mohammed bin Salman Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (; born 31 August 1985), also known as MBS or MbS, is the ''de facto'' ruler of the Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, formally serving as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Sa ...

in the death of Khashoggi, Fogel believes the prince will never face an

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

arrest warrant or formal investigation considering the vast amount of wealth he owns.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on January 24, 2020. In September 2020, Briarcliff Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released in a

on December 25, 2020, followed by

on January 8, 2021. The film struggled to find a distributor for eight months and was not able to run on a large streaming platform like

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

. It is widely believed this was due to those platforms' fear of offending the Saudi Arabian government and possibly losing subscribers. Fogel showed disappointment at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' owner

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

’ decision to acquire UAE e-commerce site Souq.com shortly after he refused to release ''The Dissident'' on Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

VOD sales

In its first weekend of home release, the film was the third-most rented title at the iTunes Store and eighth on

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "''The Dissident'' offers little catharsis in its unflinching look at a grisly murder—and gives no quarter in its forceful reminder of the fragility of free speech." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Jordan Hoffman of ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' gave the film a positive review, writing: "''The Dissident'' holds few new revelations but presents its case with enough infuriating evidence and storytelling power to make it worthwhile. Todd McCarthy of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote "Fogel's investigation is vigorous, deep and comprehensive."

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

, reviewing the film in ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

,'' called it "an eye-opening thriller brew of corruption, cover-up, and real-world courage." Joseph Fahima of ''

Middle East Eye ''Middle East Eye'' (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world. The ownership of the organisation is undisclosed. Some sources ...

'' gave the documentary a negative review, qualifying it as an "over-polished piece, which intentionally omits the less flattering aspects of hashoggistory to deliver a more marketable product" and criticizing that the "theatrical tone prioritises atmosphere, emotional engagement, and mundane cinematic flourishes over well-rounded truth".

Alleged manipulation

The filmmakers told ''The Washington Post'' that they believed trolls operating on behalf of the Saudi government created a false sense of popular disapproval of the film by flooding the review sites Rotten Tomatoes and

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

. Tiyson Reynolds from Rotten Tomatoes said "it appears that there have been deliberate attempts to manipulate the movie's audience score".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dissident, The 2020 films 2020 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about organized crime Documentary films about death Documentary films about journalism 2020s English-language films 2020s American films Persecution in Saudi Arabia Films shot in Quebec Films shot in Istanbul Documentary films about Asia Films set in 2018 English-language documentary films Briarcliff Entertainment films