Hacker Cinema
The Dissident
2020 · Film · documentary · 119 min
Directed by Bryan Fogel
When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together the clues to a brutal murder and expose a global cover up perpetrated by the very country he loved.
7 positive3 negative2 neutralfrom 12 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
15 comments on Hacker News
> The film struggled to find a distributor for eight months and was not able to run on a large streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. It is widely believed this was due to those platforms' fear of offending the Saudi Arabian government and possibly losing subscribers.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dissident#Alleged_manipulation
> killed one of his employers
Employee* Jamal Kashoggi.
There is a good movie called Dissident on it.
From the gp-linked wikipedia article:
"The film struggled to find a distributor for eight months and was not able to run on a large streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. 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 owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to acquire UAE e-commerce site Souq.com shortly after he refused to release The Dissident on Amazon Prime Video."
He tried to get it published by other means, but money.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/business/media/dissident-jamal-khashoggi-netflix-amazon.html
The case around Jamal Khashoggi is also documented quite well in the documentary: "The Dissident"
It was that movie/documentary where I first heard of Pegasus and how it had been used by the Saudi government.
I have a new found perspective for the malware/spyware industry after watching The Dissident.
I am SO IMPRESSED with this middle finger from the Signal team.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11382384/
I recently managed to watch Fogel's _The Dissident_.
The Twitter manipulation campaign that's covered in the movie was fascinating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dissident
It's on Apple TV. It's a shame that Netflix appeared too nervous of the backlash to run it.
According to at least one review, that might be just because The Dissident isn't very good. Little White Lies 88 (sorry, link not online yet) complains about "the film's commitment to a tired and gimmicky school of documentary filmmaking" describes its technique as "Juvenile and crass", and says it "lacks all feeling and creativity". Of course, that could be another instance of the reach of the Saudi propaganda...
Money = Power over what is spoken and done. Think about this:
MSB meets Bezos and gives him a video that installs spyware into his smartphone.
MSB taunts Bezos about his extramarital affair before it's widely known. Then his affair is leaked to the press. Bezos thinks MSB might be involved in the process that led to revealing the information.
MSB kills one of Bezos's employers. Bezos flies Turkey to meet his fiancee and wows to help.
Bryan Fogel, Oscar-winning film director and producer makes a documentary about the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. It takes eight months to find a streaming service for The Dissident. No streaming platform wants it. Not even Amazon Prime.
The dissident was a good movie!
I just watched A Thousand Cuts over the weekend. It’s about Dutertes war against the Press and Maria Ressa.
https://youtu.be/LixnwDIh2wU
I keep seeing this sentiment, but the fact is his other documentary Icarus was HUGE on Netflix, and if The Dissident pops up on millions of people's feed saying "From the creator of Icarus!!", millions of people would watch it.
Them not being interested is suspiciously leaving a huge pile of money on the table.
Are you familiar with Sundance? Every year there are movies there that receive lots of attention and praise only to completely disappear from public consciousness. Being well liked at Sundance is not necessarily a recipe for either financial or broad critical success.
Here is a list from Variety of the the favorites for this year's best documentary feature Oscar[1]. The Dissident comes in at number 22. I can almost guarantee there are documentaries above it you haven't heard of. This documentary wasn't going to be a mainstream hit and it doesn't appear to be a serious contender for awards. There is little incentive for a streaming company to purchase it.
It is also worth noting that the issue with Hasan Minhaj's show was specifically it being viewable in Saudi Arabia. That is a very different issue than purchasing rights to a movie in the US or other global markets.
[1] - https://variety.com/feature/2021-oscars-best-documentary-feature-predictions-1234784896/
The financial viability of a documentary isn't necessarily tied to the importance of the underlying story. This one is about a bigger story than Russian doping, but it doesn't appear to be nearly as good of a documentary as the director's previous work. Icarus won an Oscar while The Dissident isn't among to top 10 or so favorites in its category.
When purchasing a documentary, a network would either want something that could potentially become a big hit or potential add prestige by competing in awards. It doesn't appear likely that this documentary would have done either.
> a niche documentary
niche like Russian doping?
From the article:
> The documentary about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi... was one of the hottest films at last year’s Sundance. It had glowing reviews, a ripped from the headlines subject, and a big-name director in Fogel, fresh off the Oscar-winning “Icarus,” a penetrating look at Russian doping that got the country banned from the Olympics.
> And yet, Netflix, which had previously released “Icarus,” and other streaming services such as Apple and Amazon steered clear of “The Dissident.”
Wikipedia has a separate article for reactions to Jamal Kashoggi's killing from around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi
Not sure you could call this a niche topic. Heck we're talking about it on HN.
I'm not sure I believe the claims that companies were afraid of this documentary for its content. For example you can rent or buy this movie on Amazon[1] or Apple[2]. If those companies were afraid of the content, that wouldn't have happened. The more likely excuse is that it is a niche documentary that didn't have enough financial upside to merit purchasing exclusive distribution rights and "Here is a documentary they don't want you to see" is great for marketing.
[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Dissident-Jamal-Kashoggi/dp/B08QTQFNT5
[2] - https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-dissident/id1544151386
FYI the documentary is called “The Dissident”, is available for purchase from January 8th on Apple TV (as per the official site: https://www.thedissident.com) and has 95% on Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dissident)