NEW YORK (AP) – Even before “The Dissident” was presented at the Sundance Film Festival, director Bryan Fogel had the feeling that his explosive documentary by Jamal Khashoggi would be a hard sell.
The film, available on demand this week, was one of Sundance’s most anticipated last January. Fogel’s previous film, “Icarus,” about Russian doping at the Olympics, won the Oscar for best documentary. “The Dissident” includes audio recordings of Khashoggi’s assassination, the involvement of Khashoggi’s fiancé, Hatice Cengiz, and details about Saudi piracy efforts, including the infiltration of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ’cell phone. Audiences at Sundance included Hillary Clinton, Alec Baldwin and Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix.
At the screening, Fogel implored media companies not to be afraid. “In my dream dream, distributors will stand up for Saudi Arabia,” he said. In an SUV until the film’s later Sundance party, an optimistic Fogel said he hoped Netflix, Amazon, HBO or others would take a step forward; anyone who could give the film a global platform for Khashoggi’s story, which plays a lethal role. real-life geopolitical thriller in “The Dissident.”
But the difficult path for “The Dissident” had already been pointed out. None of the streamers, many of whom bought Sundance’s best films, had asked for an advance look at “The Dissident” before the festival, which could be expected for such an outstanding documentary by a filmmaker who won the ‘Oscar.
“A lot of the major streamers were really there that day. Not their content heads. Their CEOs. I would have hoped that would have led to, ‘Let’s be behind this movie.’ But it wasn’t like that. “We had no offer for $ 1 minus $ 1 million, let alone the $ 12 million paid by Boys State,” Fogel told Zoom from Los Angeles last month. which is a wonderful movie, but it’s about 17-year-old boys doing politics drills in Texas. “
“The Dissident,” set in a truly ruthless political arena, will finally debut on demand Friday. It was finally acquired last spring, in an agreement announced in September, of Briarcliff Entertainment, the independent distributor founded by Tom Ortenberg, the veteran film executive who distributed “Spotlight” and “Snowden” as executive director of Open Road Films. After two weeks of running in about 200 theaters (reduced to 800 due to the pandemic), “The Dissident” will be available for rent on sites like iTunes, Amazon and Roku.
But the good reception of the big media companies in “The Dissident”, not because it was not good (it has a score of 97% Rotten Tomatoes fresh from criticism and a score of 99% of the public ) or important, but because it openly challenges the repression of the Saudi regime against freedom of expression: it raises questions about the future of political films in ever-larger and potentially more risk-averse broadcast services.
Netflix et al have played a vital role in exponentially growing documentary audiences. But in the global search for subscriber growth, media companies have sometimes capitulated to demands that border on censorship. In 2019, Netflix removed an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s “Patriot Act” condemning the cover-up of Khashoggi’s assassination following a Saudi complaint. Last month, The New York Times reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook crushed a developing Apple TV + series about Gawker. Negative representations of China, for both old-line studios and streamers, are often off the table.
“When there’s huge money at stake (business interest, shareholder responsibility, what will make us vanilla and not cause us stress) is to win,” Fogel says. “As these companies get bigger and bigger, we see that the decisions they make, including content, are less and less risky.”
For Fogel, the experience of “The Dissident” reflects Khashoggi’s silence. The film, funded by the Human Rights Foundation, details a plot to kill Khashoggi, a former Saudi member turned columnist for the Washington Post who moderately called on his home country to adopt freedom of expression and human rights. When he took formalities for his marriage to Hatice Cengiz at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, he was murdered and his body was torn to pieces. Intelligence reports concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination. Mohammed denied that Saudi Arabia was behind the assassination and eventually allowed Saudi government agents to carry it out.. Mohammed has stated that it was not by his orders.
“The Dissident” includes interviews with Cengiz, Turkish authorities and UN investigators who deduced that Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, was hacked by a malicious file sent from Mohammed’s personal account by WhatsApp. The same scheme of piracy was allegedly used on exiled activist Omar Abdulaziz, a partner of Khashoggi. “The Dissident” finally wonders why countries and companies continue to negotiate with a country that resorts to these methods, imprisoning and killing dissidents.
“I hope this film keeps Jamal’s name and life and his values alive,” says Cengiz, speaking by phone from Istanbul. “I hope people ask for it more and more.”
President Donald Trump did not want to blame Mohammed for the assassination, and is quoted in Bob Woodward’s latest book presuming that he “saved” the Crown Prince. President-elect Joe Biden has pointed to a tougher stance with Saudi Arabia. Cengiz has called on the CIA to declassify its investigation into the murder.
He has also carried out Khashoggi’s mission. “It wasn’t my choice, but my life,” he says. She says American film companies have been scared of “The Dissident,” “it’s disappointing.”
“I couldn’t imagine they wouldn’t buy this movie because this movie is about a very important crime in history,” Cengiz says. “This film is about someone who fought for very important values. That’s why they killed him. That’s why we’re fighting. “
In particular, avoiding Netflix with “The Dissident” is “incredibly disappointing,” Fogel said. “Icarus” won its first Oscar on Netflix. A Netflix spokesman declined to comment on the company’s “The Dissident” broadcast. In November, the streamer signed a production deal with Saudi studio Telfaz11 for eight films.
But Fogel also has his eyes clear on the potential dangers associated with distributing “The Dissident,” reflecting on the possibility of Saudi piracy or a boycott of a distributor in the Middle East.
“Ultimately, these risk assessments replaced whether or not its two million subscribers would want this film,” Fogel says. “It wasn’t just Netflix, it was universal. What I think Hollywood learned from Sony’s hack is that the risk of embarrassment is too high. “
Ortenberg, on the other hand, was comfortable with the headaches that “the dissident” could cause him. “The film speaks for itself,” says Ortenberg, speaking by phone from Los Angeles. He will present “The Dissident” for award consideration.
“It’s a shame,” Ortenberg says of the apprehension of other studies. “I always saw entertainment film studios directing the post on important issues and not shying away from controversy, but really embracing the challenges and embracing the challenge of making films on important topics and treating them with respect.”
Fogel sees a lack of international and corporate will to respond to worsening human rights abuses, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Last week, the Saudi state security court sentenced Loujiain Al-Hathloul, 31, to more than five years in prison for tweets defending women’s right to drive and arguing against male guardianship regulations.. Imprisoned since May 2018, she has said she was tortured and sexually assaulted by masked men during interrogations.
“I believe that people with positions of power like this, with wealth and resources, if they are not willing to defend human rights abuses like this, for what I consider the greatest good on the planet, is becoming an increasingly frightening place to live.” says Fogel. “We’re all less confident.”
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Follow AP Film writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP