NEW YORK (AP) – Even before “The Dissident” made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, director Bryan Fogel had the feeling that his explosive documentary Jamal Khashoggi would be difficult to sell.
The film, available on demand this week, was one of the most anticipated at the Sundance Festival last January. Fogel’s previous film, “Ícaro”, about Russian doping at the Olympics, won the Oscar for best documentary. “The Dissident” features audio recordings of Khashoggi’s murder, the participation of Khashoggi’s fiance, Hatice Cengiz, and details about Saudi hacking efforts, including the infiltration of the cell phone of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Sundance audience included Hillary Clinton, Alec Baldwin and Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive.
At the exhibition, Fogel pleaded with media companies not to be scared. “In my dream, distributors are going to face Saudi Arabia,” he said. In an SUV for the film’s post-Sundance party, an excited Fogel said he hoped Netflix, Amazon, HBO or others would step forward – anyone who could give the film a global platform for Khashoggi’s story, which is lethal, real-life geopolitical thriller in “The Dissident”.
But the difficult road ahead for “The Dissident” had already been signaled. None of the streamers – many of whom bought Sundance’s top films – asked for a preview of “The Dissident” before the festival – something one would expect for a high-profile documentary by a filmmaker that came out of an Oscar win.
“Many of the main streamers were actually there that day. Not your content bosses. Your CEOs. I hoped this would lead to: ‘We are going to support this film.’ But that didn’t happen, ”said Fogel speaking for Zoom in Los Angeles last month. “We didn’t have a $ 1 offer, let alone $ 1 million – let alone the $ 12 million paid by ‘Boys State’, which is a wonderful movie, but it’s about 17 year old boys playing simulated politics in Texas. “
“The Dissident”, set in a real and unforgiving political realm, will finally open on demand on Friday. It was eventually acquired last spring, in a deal announced in September, from Briarcliff Entertainment, an independent distributor founded by Tom Ortenberg, the veteran film executive who distributed “Spotlight” and “Snowden” as chief executive of Open Road Films. After a two-week screening in about 200 cinemas (down from 800 due to the pandemic), “The Dissident” will be available for rent at places like iTunes, Amazon and Roku.
But the cold reception of major media companies to “The Dissident” – not because it was not good (has 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating from critics and 99% from the public ) or important, but because it openly challenges the Saudi regime’s crackdown on freedom of expression – raises questions about the future of political films in increasingly larger and potentially more risk-averse streaming services.
Netflix et al played a vital role in the exponential growth of the documentary audience. However, in the global search for growth in the number of subscribers, media companies sometimes capitulate in the face of demands bordering on censorship. In 2019, Netflix removed an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s “Patriot Act” that condemned the cover-up of Khashoggi’s murder after a Saudi complaint. Last month, The New York Times reported that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook crushed a developing Apple TV + series on Gawker. China’s negative representations, both for traditional Hollywood studios and streamers, are usually out of the question.
“When there is a lot of money at stake – commercial interest, shareholder responsibility, which will make us vanilla and not cause us stress – it is victory,” says Fogel. “As these companies get bigger and bigger, we see the choices they make, including content, becoming less and less risky.”
For Fogel, the experience of “The Dissident” mirrors Khashoggi’s silence. The film, funded by the Human Rights Foundation, details a plot to kill Khashoggi, a former Saudi Arabian member who became a columnist for the Washington Post and made moderate calls for his native country to embrace freedom of expression and human rights. Upon collecting the paperwork for his marriage to Hatice Cengiz at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, he was murdered and his body was sawn to pieces. Intelligence reports concluded that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination. Mohammed denied that Saudi Arabia was behind the murder, but ended up admitting that it was carried out by agents of the Saudi government. Mohammed said it was not on his orders.
“The Dissident” includes interviews with Cengiz, Turkish authorities and United Nations investigators who deduced that Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, was hacked by a malicious file sent from Mohammed’s personal WhatsApp account. The same hacking scheme was allegedly used on exiled activist Omar Abdulaziz, a Khashoggi associate. “The Dissident” ends up questioning why countries and companies continue to do business with a country that uses such methods, arresting and killing dissidents.
“I hope this film will keep Jamal’s name, Jamal’s life and values alive,” said Cengiz, speaking by telephone from Istanbul. “I hope that people will ask more and more and more.”
President Donald Trump refused to blame Mohammed for the murder, and is quoted in Bob Woodward’s last book, boasting that he “saved” the Crown Prince. President-elect Joe Biden signaled a tougher stance on Saudi Arabia. Cengiz asked the CIA to declassify its investigation into the murder.
She also continued Khashoggi’s mission. “It was not my choice, but it is my life,” she says. The fact that American film companies were startled by “The Dissident”, she says, is “disappointing”.
“I couldn’t imagine that they wouldn’t buy this film because it talks about a very important crime in the story,” says Cengiz. “This film is about someone who fought for some very important values. That’s why they killed him. That’s why we’re fighting. “
In particular, the fact that Netflix has moved away from “The Dissident” is “incredibly disappointing,” said Fogel. “Icarus” won its first Oscar for Netflix. A Netflix spokesman declined to comment on the company’s broadcast of “The Dissident”. In November, the streamer signed a production contract with Saudi studio Telfaz11 for eight films.
But Fogel is also keen on the potential dangers associated with distributing “The Dissident”, reflecting on the possibility of Saudi hacking or a boycott in the Middle East to a distributor.
“Ultimately, these risk assessments replaced whether its two hundred million subscribers would like to see this movie or not,” said Fogel. “It wasn’t just Netflix, but it was universal. What I think Hollywood has learned from the Sony hack is that the risk of embarrassment is very high. ”
Ortenberg, on the other hand, was comfortable with any headache that “The Dissident” could bring. “The film speaks for itself,” says Ortenberg, speaking by phone from Los Angeles. He is presenting “The Dissident” for consideration of awards.
“It’s a shame,” says Ortenberg of the apprehension of other studios. “I have always seen entertainment film studios leading the important issues and not running away from controversy, but actually embracing the challenges and embracing the challenge of making films about important issues and treating them with respect.”
Fogel sees a lack of international and corporate will to respond to human rights abuses that are only getting worse, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Last week, the Saudi state security court sentenced 31-year-old Loujiain Al-Hathloul to more than five years in prison for tweets that defended women’s right to drive and argued against male guardianship rules.. Arrested since May 2018, she said she was tortured and sexually abused by masked men during interrogations.
“I believe that people in positions of power like this, with wealth and resources, if they are not willing to stand up for human rights abuses like this, for what I consider to be the greatest good on the planet, it becomes increasingly frightening place to live, ”says Fogel. “We all become less secure.”
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Follow AP film writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP