A dissident is a person who opposes official policy, particularly within an authoritarian state. In the new documentary by Bryan Fogel, The Dissident tracks the life of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for speaking out against the Saudi regime.
Fogel, the Academy-Award winning director of Icarus, believes we’re in the heyday of documentary filmmaking. This realization has been coming for a long time. “The streamers – Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Hulu – in this increased world of a spectacular amount of content, have created a void they must fill with quality content.”
“What we’ve seen in documentaries and their popularity, is that people are drawn to real life content. The production value that has happened in the last several years tries to elevate the artful to cinema. The appetite for this sort of content is there especially in the world we’re currently living in, where you turn on the news and you ask, ‘what’s next?’ claimed the filmmaker.
Bryan Fogel (Photo by Patrick Lewis/Starpix)
Using narrative techniques of a scripted thriller as a template, the writer-director said he’s “drawn to stories of resistance that can create change and have lasting impact.” He added, “The journey I went on with Icarus [a geopolitical thriller about doping in sports] created that.”
Thanks to Icarus, various laws have since been passed to put a stop to athletic doping. Russia was even banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics. “That story carries forward and it’s my hope that as audiences watch The Dissident, there can be that same sort of hope, meaningful action, and justice for Jamal Khashoggi.”
“We shot both Icarus and The Dissident using the cinematic techniques you might find in a Paul Greengrass (Jason Bourne) film. I’m drawn to stories that have real world implications where I can shine a light onto, change public opinion, or have meaningful action come with it. Documentary has the ability to do that.”
Meaningful Subjects
Bryan Fogel is never starved of meaningful material to develop into a documentary film. We asked him what makes one subject more movie-worthy than another.
“It’s hard to say one murder is more important than another or one human rights activist fighting for free speech is more relevant,” continued Fogel, “but what illuminates this murder is not only its brutality, but the nature of it.”
Around the time of Jamal Khashoggi’s death, the journalist was publishing critical, yet thoughtful pieces, that put him on a watchlist. Fogel described Khashoggi’s critical writing as “not with anger,” but “about injustices he saw happening in his country, Saudia Arabia, which he loved and eventually wanted to return to.”
In the journalist’s last works, he uncovered stories about the lack of democratic leadership in his country. “They were going down a path he disagreed with, particularly in regards to human rights violations. Jamal made a choice to go into self-exile so he could retain his voice and rights. In so doing, he was murdered in his own consulate — dismembered by a bone saw.”
The nature of the murder was not only shocking (as his fiancée was waiting outside for him to return with their marriage paperwork), but the brutality of it also shocked the world. Fogel compared the murder as a similar act of violence like the recent deaths of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor. He continued, “The murder was ordered at the behest of Mohammed bin Salman by a 15-man hit squad who traveled to Istanbul from the kingdom in private jets.”
“The murder of Jamal sent a message that no one is safe if they criticize the regime, no matter where they are. The audacity to kill one of their citizens within the consulate of his own country who had made a rightful choice to voice freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of journalism was extraordinary. I think this murder also spoke to, in a greater sense, to the environment that we are finding ourselves in as a humanity with authoritarian regimes with unstoppable powers.”
Piecing Together the Jamal Khashoggi Story
Painstaking research was vital for Fogel to tackle the subject matter truthfully.
“When I was looking to take on the Khashoggi story, what was very paramount to me was the participation of Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, Omar Abdulaziz, the 28-year-old Saudi activist in exile whose phone had been hacked [with a program called Pegasus], and the participation of the Turkish government. They were going to provide me with information, evidence, photos, and videos that could really help tell this story,” said Fogel.
With this research wish list in mind, his collaborative team got to work. “That was a huge undertaking which included months of trying to create trust with Hatice Cengiz, Omar, and the Turks. It was a very emotional journey to go on. It was more than a year before the Turks decided to hand over their transcript, but there were many other aspects of The Dissident they participated in. That allowed the film to have the emotional impact and authenticity audiences craved.”
Omar Abdulaziz (Photo by Natalie Goldfinger)
In addition to the facts, there were also forms of disinformation to avoid. “I think what the film lays out is pretty much an open and closed case of a murder gone horribly wrong and how the Saudis are caught,” said Fogel. “I believe the CIA. I believe British intelligence. I believe French intelligence. I believe Turkish intelligence. There’s been near unanimous agreement that this murder was ordered by Mohammed bin Salman.”
The filmmaker doesn’t believe there’s any dispute as to what happened in the consulate, despite some preposterous explanations from the Saudis. They claimed, “Jamal put up a fight and they didn’t mean to murder him, and this was all an accident.”
Fogel continued, “But when you look at the facts from the assassin squad, to the coroner, to the use of embalming agents, to the audio that exists of his murder, there is no dispute as to whether or not he was murdered or dismembered. It is believed he was burned and the only question is, did MBS order the murder? It’s an absolute monarchy. It’s unfathomable it could happen without him being aware, without him giving the green light to proceed with this shocking crime.”
Avoid Exploitation
As detailed as The Dissident is in regards to the murder, there was some audio offered by the Turks that Fogel decided not to use (much like Werner Herzog’s decision to withhold the Grizzly Man audio). “I made a decision that I didn’t need it. I didn’t want it. What was laid out in the film was so cut and dry there was no need to have that extra audio in the film.”
Jamal Khashoggi & Hatice Cengiz (Photo by Natalie Goldfinger)
With additional thought, he added, “I said to myself, ‘I don’t want his fiancée to have to hear this. I don’t want Omar to have to hear this. I don’t want his children or those who loved him to have to hear this.’ It felt exploitative to me. I chose, instead, to create the cinematic version of his murder with transcript, graphics, sound, and music, rather than the actual voice and struggle of Jamal and his last breath.”
In the end, the film provides damning evidence against the Saudis, but on the screen, the resolution is perhaps left open to the viewer. “I don’t say how an audience should process the film emotionally and intellectually. That is freedom of opinion or freedom of thought. I’m simply presenting the facts and I’m trying to craft a story that has an emotional connection. But this is the world we live in, where greed and politics are taking the place of human rights.”
As for Fogel’s role in all of this, the documentarian believes his goal is to bring meaning and action to the facts. “I believe the power of cinema is being able to elicit an emotional response to what could otherwise be considered, just a story. You can look at other films, like Searching for Sugar Man, and say, how would the world have learned about this story otherwise? Or Free Solo from Jimmy Chin, or Blackfish and what was happening at SeaWorld? This list goes on and on, but the craft of filmmaking has that ability to change public perspectives, but also reform and bring about change. I think, hopefully, that is the power of a film like The Dissident.”
“It’s for me to describe what healing is,” said Fogel about his satisfaction in making such a film. He received an email from Jamal’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz that created a deeper sense of how films like this can help heal those involved and to create a message without exploiting pain. Despite these gruesome events, Fogel and Hatice are forever hopeful of a better humanity.
